


Blame It On The Stardust

by LilyAceOfDiamonds



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Asexual Character, Bisexual Character, LGBTQ Character, Nonbinary Character, Other, Polyamory, Trans Character, no one is straight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:48:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 40
Words: 45,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21830230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyAceOfDiamonds/pseuds/LilyAceOfDiamonds
Summary: Kady is going to surprise her boyfriend Penny in New York, and meets an architect named Julia on the bus. Inviting Julia and her friend Quentin to stay with Kady’s friends Marina and Pete thrusts Julia and Quentin unknowingly into the world of hedge magic. Can they use this knowledge to save the Fillory nature reserve that Eliot, Margo, and Fen are trying to rescue from being turned into a library by Penny’s employers?(Loosely based on the movie One Starry Christmas)
Relationships: William "Penny" Adiyodi/Kady Orloff-Diaz/Julia Wicker
Comments: 17
Kudos: 12
Collections: Magicians Hallmark Holiday Extravaganza





	1. Kady

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Blame it on the Stardust ART](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21844861) by [indestructress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/indestructress/pseuds/indestructress). 



> This was a lot of fun to work on, and got waaaay bigger than I had planned on. I had a wonderful artist, indestructress, who made amazing graphics for the story and was an absolute pleasure to work with, you should check out her art! Also a shout-out to NightjarPatronus for being my beta and sounding board to bounce ideas off of, you're the best (and also for convincing me to join this extravaganza to begin with)! Any spelling/grammar mistakes are mine, of course, and I apologize in advance for the over-use of commas.
> 
> I'll try to give any trigger warnings in relevant chapters, but if I miss something please let me know and I'll add it. There are some discussions of depression, trauma, abuse, unwanted sexual advances, and the like, just like in the show, although I don't think anything is too graphic or detailed. But, again, don't hesitant to ask for things to be tagged!
> 
> A note on magic in this story: there are no Magicians or official schools of magic, just hedge magic. Some 'muggles' have the capacity for magic but never tap into it, and those that do often discover that they have a specialty type of magic (aka discipline) that comes innately to them even if they can perform other types of magic with study and practice.
> 
> Also, a lot of the side characters? If you don't recognize them from the show, they're probably from another show/book/movie/comic. So don't worry, your Magicians knowledge is still as good as you think it is, and if you catch any of my tie-ins, well done! (If you want to know where a name/character is from, just ask in the comments!)

Kady walked into their living room to find Penny sitting on the couch.

“Hey, what are you still doing up?”

“Waiting for you, of course.” Penny patted the couch next to him, and she sat down with her back against the armrest, facing him with her knees pulled up.

“Why? It’s almost one in the morning, and don’t you have an early morning with the Order?”

He grimaced. She knew he hated working for the company, but he didn’t have a choice. They had messed up, and the librarians were taking advantage of having a Traveler indebted to them.

“Fucking librarians decided to have a big week of meetings, and Everett insists that I show up to all of them and stay at the hotel that’s hosting the damn thing.”

“Of course he does. When?”

“Starting tomorrow at noon in New York.”

Kady stared at him. “Tomorrow? For a whole week?! But I just got holiday vacation approved for this weekend!”

“I know. I didn’t choose this, Kady. At least we weren’t planning on going anywhere.” Penny put his hand on Kady’s arm and pulled, and Kady took the hint and slid until she was nestled next to him with her head on his shoulder.

“We were going to go to that hedge party. Silvermoon’s Yule thing, remember? This isn’t just an elaborate ruse to avoid going, is it?”

Some of the hedges in Chicago had planned a whole weekend of parties and debauchery, and Kady had promised Silver that she would drag Penny this year. Big magic parties weren’t really Penny’s cup of tea, although Kady enjoyed them. They reminded her of the parties her mom used to take her to when she was younger.

Penny snorted. “I would never willingly spend a whole fucking week with the librarians just to get out of a party. Even if I can’t stand some of the witches they’d be an improvement to Everett.”

“I know.” Kady sighed. “It’s just bullshit. Who has meetings on Christmas?”

“I doubt the dusty old bookworms even have families. I don’t think any of them actually pay attention to the outside world anymore, they spend too much time looking at rare books. Besides, it’s not like we celebrate Christmas, anyway.”

“Unimportant. It’s the principle of the thing.”

“No, it’s a Christian-based society expecting to be given time off for their holidays while ignoring other cultures’ holidays and religious days.”

Kady smacked his shoulder lightly.

“I fucking know, asshole. That’s still not the point. The point, Penny, is that we had fucking plans and the Order is screwing them up.”

“Oh, we had fucking plans?” Penny smirked and waggled an eyebrow. “Damn, maybe I can make it home at night for the fucking plans.”

She started out scowling, but couldn’t keep a straight face and was soon laughing hysterically. Penny watched her for a few seconds before he joined in, and it was several minutes before they had calmed down enough to do anything but wheeze.

“We should go to bed. We need sleep.” Kady wiped tears from her eyes as she stood up and hoisted Penny to his feet. They stumbled down the short hallway to the bed and fell asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows.

They could worry about the Order and their ruined plans in the morning.

Penny promised to at least sneak home when he could, and Kady left for work before he had gone the next morning. However, they discovered that the Librarians had planned for everything, and there were anti-magic wards all over the hotel and even extended to Traveling. He would have to leave the hotel to get away, which he didn’t think he could do every night, especially if they didn’t believe him that he was only visiting his girlfriend and not giving nefarious information to whomever the Librarians were scared of. Kady listened to Penny rant and rave about the bastards on the phone after she got off of work, mind spinning to find a way out of this conundrum.

Maybe she could go to him. She knew people in New York, it had been her home for almost five years before they moved out here to Chicago. It could be a nice surprise for him.

How would she get there, though? It was too far for her motorbike, and they didn’t have a car. Who needs a car when your boyfriend can pop you down to the grocery store in a second? Or at least the nearest deserted alleyway to the grocery store, no need to scare all the muggles.

She could take a bus. She only had one more day of work to get through before her vacation started, she could find a bus to New York by then. Pulling out her laptop, Kady searched for tickets. Finding one that left at 9 pm the next night and arrived the day after at 1 in the afternoon, she stopped just before booking it. Maybe she should make sure her friends would be in town.

She grabbed her phone, dialing Pete’s number.

“Hey Kady-cat, what’s up?” Pete answered after three rings, sounding tired. Kady checked the clock and realized it was almost eleven there.

“Shit, sorry, were you asleep? I didn’t think about the time.”

“Nah, I just got home from a long shift at the shop. What’s wrong?”

Kady explained about Penny and her idea to come to New York to surprise him for the week since she already had the time off.

“Are you and Marina going to be in town, can I crash at your place?”

“Of course you can. We’re renewing the protection wards around the apartment this week, we could use the extra help anyway if you’re available. When are you coming?”

“I’m gonna catch a bus tomorrow, probably get there on the 19th sometime in the early afternoon if everything goes smoothly.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll tell Marina when she gets back, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled. We might even have a nice dinner or something to celebrate the four amigos being all back together.”

“Three amigos, dumbass. It’s the three amigos.”

“Right, right, whatever you say, kitty. See you in a few days, then.”

“See ya.” She hung up, grinning. Grabbing her laptop again, she booked the ticket and then headed to the bedroom to find her suitcase. It’s time to pack for a trip back home.

Kady stored her old beat-up suitcase in the under-carriage of the bus, glad she had the protection spell on it to keep it safe as she went around to the front and handed her ticket to the driver. The bus was clean, even though the seats were worn from use and the windows probably didn’t actually open up. She found an empty seat about halfway back and slid past the first seat to the one by the window.

She watched as more people began boarding the bus. There were professionals in suits mixed in with mothers and their kids, everyone armed with phones and books and pillows to combat the long sixteen-hour bus ride.

It took a while to get the bus headed out, but soon the only noises were the quiet chatting of strangers and the whistle of cars moving past. Eventually, even the talking simmered down to whispers as the hour got later and people began to fall asleep, occasionally snoring and being woken up by their family or seat partner.

Kady stared out the window at the moving darkness, not really concentrating on anything. No one had sat down next to her before the bus left the station, so she was able to sprawl out a little more even with the annoyance of the armrest between the seats.

She eventually drifted off to sleep, lulled by the constant rocking of the bus and a late night spent worrying about Penny and packing for the trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, and you can find me on tumblr at LilyAceOfDiamonds if you want to scream into the void with me about Magicians and other nerdy shit.


	2. Julia

Julia stared out the window as Alice drove them to the bus station. She was worried about Q, but at least she would see him in a few days. A bus trip from rural Illinois all the way to New York City wasn’t the most exciting prospect, but it was the cheapest since she didn’t have a car. Planes are fucking expensive, and she has time since she took the semester off school to get her head back on straight.

Alice broke the silence. “Are you sure you want to travel by bus?”

“Well, I already bought the ticket, so I might as well. It’ll be fine. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, Jules, but I wish I could come with you. I might be able to get someone to take care of the horses for a few days, I could see --”

Julia cut her off with a shake of her head. “No, the horses and cats would miss you dreadfully. We’re probably going to have a big party if the gang figure out what to do about that nature reserve, though, so you should totally put some thought into coming out for a few days.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do, I might be able to ask Sheila if she can take care of the animals. And I’ll keep researching this company that Filmore is trying to sell the reserve too, that Rowe guy seems kinda sketchy. What does a company like his want with a nature reserve in the middle of nowhere?”

“I dunno, but keep me updated, okay? I’ll tell Q you’re still in research mode, and we’ll pass the information on to Eliot and Margo. I can’t believe they don’t have decent internet out there, it’s the twenty-first century.”

“I still can’t believe Eliot is from the middle of nowhere, Oregon, and he never told us! And then some mystery chick shows up saying she needs his help? And he goes?”

“I know, it’s crazy. Although I don’t blame him for trying to escape, can you imagine our Eliot growing up in rural county? Q says that Fen is sweet, and not at all El’s type. And he’s not her type either, apparently. At least he took Margo with him, so we know he’s not going to vanish forever into the west.”

“True. We’ll have to make a trip out to see what’s so special about this Filmore place. There were shockingly few pictures of it.” Alice turned the car into the bus station parking lot as she spoke, and Julia reached back to grab her bag out of the backseat.

They got out and Alice walked over to the ticket counter with her as she got the ticket she had paid for.

“Be careful, okay? And let me know you made it safely, and don’t forget to send me the name of whatever hotel you end up at.”

Julia rolled her eyes as she saw the bus pulling up. “Yes, mother. I will, I promise.”

Alice hugged her, and Julia hugged her back just as tightly.

“Thank you, Alice. Really. Thank you for everything.”

“Of course, that’s what friends are for, helping out when their friends need help, Jules. Stay safe.”

With one last hug, Julia hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and boarded the bus.

The bus was crowded, but Julia still managed to find a seat next to a girl about her age, in her early twenties. The girl was sleeping against the window, so Julia sat down carefully so that she wouldn’t jostle her awake accidentally.

Julia glanced over at her once she was seated to make sure she was still asleep. The girl’s curly hair went nicely with the worn leather jacket and boots that she was wearing, giving off a punk-rock aesthetic. The soft-looking green shirt and tight black jeans completed the picture with a few pieces of jewelry, and Julia took a moment to appreciate the entire ensemble before realizing she was staring and turning to look forward. Clearly, she was spending too much time with Margo.

The bus began to move, and Julia put her headphones in and tried to zone out, not sure if she would be able to sleep but willing to try anything to help the time pass.

Classical music played softly, and she was just beginning to fall into a trance-like sleep when she felt something on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and looked down, and saw her seat partner’s curly hair. She must have shifted around without Julia noticing, and her head was resting on Julia’s shoulder now. Still asleep for now, although that could change at any moment if Julia moved at all.

Resigned to her fate as a pillow for her traveling companion, Julia closed her eyes again. Not that she really minded, although she might feel differently in a few hours when her arm inevitably fell asleep. But that was for future Julia to worry about.

A metallic _screeeeech_ cut through the air as the bus jolted, and Julia startled awake. She heard the other passengers exclaiming and questioning what was going on as the bus moved over to the shoulder of the road, the sky still black outside the lights of the bus.

“Wha -- fuck.” Julia had forgotten about the girl sleeping next to her until suddenly the now-accustomed weight lifted from her shoulder. The other girl was blinking around, probably still disoriented from sleep and the sudden call to wakefulness.

“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you. What’s going on, do you know?” The other girl turned to scan out the window as she asked, clearly not expecting Julia to actually know what’s happening.

“It’s okay. I think something happened with the brakes, given the god-awful screeching noise, but I don’t know.” The bus driver had climbed out of the bus and was apparently fiddling under the hood based on the noises, and Julia hoped that whatever was wrong had an easy fix so they could get back on the road.

“We’ve stopped in a little town, looks like, although there’s no traffic since it’s fuck-o-clock in the morning.”

How could she see anything? It was pitch black out there to Julia. She checked her phone to see what time it was and told the other girl that it was almost two o’clock.

“Fuck, how long was I asleep? Sorry again, for using you as a pillow. I’m Kady, by the way.”

“Julia. And it’s fine, I didn’t mind. I’ve done that before, so it’s all good.”

The bus driver got back on the bus and told everyone that they could get off if they wanted, it was going to take longer than he thought to try and fix the bus. People groaned but started to get up and file off the bus, probably grateful for the chance to stretch their legs.

Julia sighed and got up, grabbing her purse with Kady following suit as they waited their turn to get off the bus. Kady had been right, there were buildings with closed businesses lining the streets that she could see now that they were off the bus. People gathered on the sidewalks and chatted quietly, wondering where they were and how long they would be stuck in this little town before the bus could get fixed and they could be on their way again.


	3. Kady

Kady listened to the ringing of the other side of the phone. Come on, Penny, pick up your fucking phone.

“ _ If you have this number, you know who you’ve called. Leave a fucking message. A short one _ .” Damnit, Penny! Those librarian assholes probably took his phone, the technophobes.

Kady looked around for the girl she had been sitting next to, or more embarrassingly, sleeping on. She saw Julia sitting on the curb just down the road from the bus looking up at the sky.

As she walked over, Kady got a better look at the other girl. They were probably close to the same age, Julia was wearing faded jeans and a sweater, with a light-colored long cardigan over it all. It was a good look for her. Her long brown hair was fluttering in the wind a little as Kady sat down next to her and smiled when she looked over.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Just tried to call my boyfriend, he didn’t pick up.”

Julia nodded. “Yeah, I thought about calling a friend of mine, but I would probably just have to leave a message. I might try in a little bit if the bus isn’t fixed by then.”

Kady looked up at the stars like Julia had been doing. Outside the city lights, there were more stars visible, and Kady remembered looking at them with her mom whenever they were traveling. Orion was easiest to pick out, the three stars that make up the belt bright in the sky overhead.

“I love looking at the stars.” She tilted her head to look over at Julia, who was also looking skyward. “I used to go outside all the time with my father when I was little and look for shooting stars.”

Kady smiled. “My mom always told me that rain and snow were the stardust from shooting stars that people had wished upon. The stars would burn up falling to earth and gather in the clouds, and if it rained than someone was getting their wish.”

“Stardust, I like that. My dad was too scientific for that kind of thinking, but my sister and I would wish on them anyway. It’s strangely poetic to think that falling stars are still making it to earth instead of just burning up in the stratosphere. I guess the dust from burning up breaching the atmosphere has to go somewhere, it might as well collect in the clouds and become rain.”

Kady laughed quietly. “God, you’re such a nerd.”

Julia looked over at her, blushing a little. “Shut up. I just like learning about new things.”

“Yeah, pretty sure that’s the definition of ‘nerd’, Julia. But it’s okay, I’m not judging. Well, not much.” She grinned at her and nudged her shoulder so that Julia would know she was joking, and Julia mock-glared at her before giggling softly.

“‘Ravenclaw and proud, bitches’, as my friend Q would say. At least before we convinced him he was actually a Hufflepuff. Now I’m the only Ravenclaw in my friend group.”

“My boyfriend is a ’Puff, even though he thinks he’s edgy and Slytherin. I’m a Gryffindor, my friends say I punch people too much to be anything else.”

“Ah, but at least you’ve read the Harry Potter books. See, you have a little bit of nerd in you.”

“Shuddup, bitch. Who hasn’t read the Harry Potter books, honestly? People living under rocks or something.”

“Or something.” Julia yawned, and Kady followed suit. “Sorry, yawns are contagious.”

“It’s also two o’clock in the fucking morning. I wish the bus would get fixed.”

Julia smirked. “Wanna wish on a star?”

Kady stared at her. “What, really? That’s for little kids, wishing isn’t going to actually do anything to fix the bus.”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun. I’ll do it too, we don’t have to tell anyone. Be brave, lioness.”

Kady rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She looked up and found Orion’s belt again, and then closed her eyes. “I wish that the bus will get fixed and that we’ll get to New York quickly and safely.”

“I think that’s two wishes, technically.”

“Plenty of stars in the sky, I’m sure they won’t mind. Your turn.”

Julia had just closed her eyes when they heard a screeching sound come from the bus again, and they looked over to see a puff of smoke coming from the engine.

“Well, I guess that wish isn’t going to come true anytime soon.”


	4. Julia

Julia excused herself to try and call Quentin after another ten minutes, and Kady had pulled out her own phone to call one of her friends.

She called the number Quentin had given her, but it rang once before fizzling out. She waited a minute before trying again, and then a third time. No connection. The cell signal here was absolutely terrible, they really were in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully, Kady was having better luck getting ahold of her friend.

Returning back to her previous spot on the sidewalk, Julia didn’t see Kady anywhere. She sat back down and shivered slightly, pulling her cardigan tighter around her as the wind blew past her. She wondered where they were, and much they had left to go before they hit New York City.

She had just pulled out a pencil and notebook that she had in her purse so that she could calculate the distance based on the times from her bus ticket when she heard a car pull up next to her.

Julia looked up, ready to glare at whoever it was, but to her surprise it was Kady. Sitting behind the wheel of a beat-up Chevy, she was rolling down the window.

“Get in, bitch, we’re going shopping.”

Julia snorted. “Mean Girls? Really?”

Kady shrugged. “It’s a great line. Come on, let’s get our things and bounce this podunk town.”

“Where did you even get that car?”

“Oh, there’s this rental company that’s open twenty-four hours just around the corner. We must not be the only bus to have mechanical difficulties around here.”

She had said that with a completely straight face, but there’s no way that was the actual truth. Rental companies had hours just like everywhere else, and this little town probably didn’t even have a car service! Julia narrowed her eyes at her, and Kady smirked.

“I left some money, don’t worry. And a note. Now go get your shit, I’m gonna go tell the bus driver that we found alternate transportation so he doesn’t freak out about two missing passengers.”

Julia sighed, but went and got her bag anyway. She slid it into the backseat with what was presumably Kady’s suitcase, and got in the passenger’s side seat as Kady walked back from talking to the driver.

“Got everything?” Kady slid behind the driver’s seat and turned the key, starting the car back up. Julia nodded in affirmation, and Kady swung the car out onto the road and started heading east.

“Do you even know where we’re going? Or where we are?”

Kady shrugged. “Well, the bus was headed in this direction, and there’s probably only one main road. Eventually, we’ll hit a major road and maybe get enough cell service to have wifi, or we can get a map from a gas station and go old-school navigation. We have half a tank of gas before we have to worry about that, so hopefully, civilization will come first.”

They drove in silence for a little while until Julia realized that she had never asked her if she had gotten through to anyone she had tried to call.

“Did you reach your friend? I didn’t have enough service to reach anyone.”

“Yeah, I did. It was shitty signal, but she said she would be ready for us whenever we got to her house. It’s in New York City, that is where you’re headed, right?”

“Oh, yeah, it is. I’m going to meet up with my best friend, he’s just getting out of a hospital stay, and then we’re going to go visit some friends out west once plane tickets are less expensive because of the holidays.”

“That sounds fun. Where are you going to stay in the city, does your friend have a place?”

It was Julia’s turn to shrug. “Q and I had an apartment together, but when I took some time off of school he moved in with another friend of ours to save on rent. I was just going to crash on their couch.”

“Well, my friends have a few extra rooms if you want to stay with us and sleep in a real bed. It’d be hopefully more comfortable than a couch.”

“I might take you up on that offer, I don’t know what Josh has been doing on that couch when Quentin is away.” Really, it was best not to think about it.

“Any time. You said you’re taking time off school, what are you studying?”

“I’m going to school for architecture design, I want to be an architect. Not the most stable of professions, according to my mother, but I love it. Designing buildings is the best part, trying to make something look unique but have it able to stand up to the elements. My parents’ house had really interesting turrets and windows, I want to design things like that. Preferably for low-income housing, just because people aren’t rich doesn’t mean their houses have to be boring buildings.” Julia blushed as she realized she was rambling. “Sorry, didn’t mean to talk your ear off. Feel free to tell me to shut up if I bore you.”

Kady shook her head, curls bouncing as she glanced over before looking back on the road. “No, it’s okay, you’re not boring me. I think that sounds fantastic, as someone who has spent a significant portion of her life in transient housing. Affordable housing shouldn’t have to be dull to look at, the rich definitely don’t deserve all the pretty houses.”

Julia nodded. “Right? My mother thinks I’m wasting my time and talents. But, enough about me. What do you do, are you in school?”

Smirking, Kady shook her head again. “No, I’m a trainee police officer with Chicago P.D. I just joined the police academy six months ago, and my boyfriend Penny and I moved to Chicago.”

Another mention of the boyfriend. That’s a shame, Julia thought, why do all the good-looking ones have to be taken? And what kind of name is Penny, anyway?

“Wow, you just picked up and moved? That’s impressive. I’ve always thought about doing something like that, but I couldn’t bring myself to just -- do it. My whole life is in New York.”

Quentin would have been reluctantly happy for her if she had, but she would have missed him too much. They’ve been best friends since they were little kids, reading fantasy books and dreaming about running away together to a faraway land. But Q loved New York, and Eliot and their other friends were there.

And she still wanted to finish her schooling. Plus, traveling to see them all if she moved would cost an arm and a leg. But Chicago sounded nice, maybe she would have to plan a trip out there sometime. Especially now that she knew someone living there. If Kady didn’t mind, of course, they had only met a few hours ago.

“Well, the move was relatively easy, we didn’t have much stuff between us. Plus, we got a great discount on travel between New York and Chicago. If all of your friends are in New York, what were you doing in -- whatever town you got on the bus?”

Oh, right. That would definitely be a question that a cop-to-be would want to know. She had just told Kady everyone she cared about lived in New York.

“My friend Alice has a horse farm just outside Chicago. Well, Quentin’s friend first, technically. Or ex-girlfriend. But they’re still on good terms, and Alice moved out there to help her aunt who runs the farm. Alice is originally from Chicago, I think her parents live there or something. I -- I had a really bad breakup and needed to get my head back on straight, so I took a break from school and went to Alice’s to get away from the city for a while.”

Kady, bless her, just nodded and didn’t pry anymore. “That happens to everyone, I’ve been there before. It’s nice to have places like that, a horse farm sounds delightful.”

“It was, I miss it already.”


	5. Marina

Marina sat down at the kitchen table, coffee freshly brewed in the mug in front of her. The smell would bring Pete down from his room eventually, it always did. Sure enough, he came stumbling downstairs a few minutes later wearing nothing but boxers and a tank. Not that she was dressed in much more, although at least she was wearing long pajama pants because it’s fucking cold in New York in December.

“‘Morning, ‘Rina.” Pete sat down with his own mug, the text of which said ‘I Am A Ray Of Fucking Sunshine’. They had scoured flea markets until they found their mugs after they had bought the apartment, looking for better ones than the chipped plain ones that they’d definitely not stolen from their previous employer. Marina’s was white with lettering that said ‘I Don’t Spew Profanities. I Enunciate Them Clearly, Like A Fucking Lady’. She used it every day, even if she couldn’t take it into work with her.

“What time is Kady getting here?” Pete stole a bite of her toast as he asked, and she scowled at him.

“Don’t chew with your fucking mouth open, Pete, it’s gross. Whenever the car she stole is getting here.”

“Wait, I thought she was taking a bus? I know she was buying a ticket.”

“She was, and then the fucking bus broke down somewhere in Pennsylvania.”

“Oh fun, I bet she loved that. Is that why your phone was going off at fuck’o’clock in the morning? I could hear you talking to someone.”

“Yeah, she called to say she’d be back on the road whenever the bus got fixed. I told her to stop being an idiot and just steal a car. Oh, she might be bringing someone with her, she was talking about carpooling with some girl she met on the bus.”

Pete’s head rose up from the slouch he had been in over the table, eyebrows raised. “Kitty’s bringing home a  _ girl _ ? Damn, and I thought I moved fast.”

“You do, asshole. And not like that, or at least, unconfirmed. All I know is she asked if we still had the guest rooms available because she was going to offer crash space to some girl she was sitting with on the bus who’s also headed for the city.”

“Still. She should get here by this afternoon if she still drives the way she used to on her motorbike. Penny’s coming over too, though, right? He got freedom from the assholes to come to dinner?”

“Yeah, I was texting him before I came downstairs, he said he’d try and get away on time. A whole week of meetings and magic wards to boot so he can’t slip in and out. Speaking of wards, did you get those ingredients we need for renewing our wards?”

“Yeah, I grabbed some stuff at the shop yesterday, but we still need to go pick up a few of the ingredients we’re out of from the market. And Angel said he had something useful from the club for us, I was going to swing by his and Collins’ place after I got off work.”

“Great. We’ll have Kady here at least to help and maybe Pen depending on when his week of meetings ends. Although if the muggle girl ends up staying long, she could be a problem. Whatever, we’ll figure it out, we have until the 22nd.”

“Everything will be fine, as long as Irene can’t get past them so she can wreak havoc and steal the things back that we stole from her.”

“What we have left, you mean.”

“Exactly. Rule number twelve, never leave potential goods lying around if they can be sold for cold hard cash.”

Marina rolled her eyes. “You made that up just now, didn’t you? Or is that fucker at the antique shop actually teaching you things while you do his books?”

“I do more than that and you know it. Although I made up the number, yeah. He has said that before, I think Nate must have been a thief in a previous life. He says shit like that all the time, claims of being a retired insurance investigator be damned.”

“Sweetie, we were all thieves in past lives, and most of us in this one too.”

“True. Hey, aren’t you running late for your counseling session?”

After glancing at the clock and seeing that it was creeping towards eight, she got up and put her now-empty plate and mug in the sink.

“No, am I ever late? I arrive precisely when I mean to, so I’m always on time.”

He smirked at her. “Yeah, okay Gandalf, whatever you say.”

She flipped him the bird as she headed upstairs to get ready for the morning of sessions with her teenagers at the youth center. She’d worry about dinners and muggles later.

And the angry hedge witch they pissed off when they left her club? Definitely a problem for after she talks to six teenagers about whatever they needed to vent about before the holidays.


	6. Kady

Kady took over the last hour of driving and remembered she should ask what her companion’s holiday plans were, if only to get the whole ‘wiccan’ conversation out of the way. Even if none of them were actually wiccan, it made for a good cover story about why they had weird things in the apartment. Especially with Marina planning on renewing the wards, and Pete being the asshole troll that he is.

“So, um, do you have any plans for the holidays? Or celebrate any of them?” Smooth, Kady, way to be awkward.

“Oh, not really. My parents only did the whole go-to-church thing for appearances, and Q and his family left their church for being full of homophobic assholes. We do a Christmas-Hanukkah hybrid sometimes just to give gifts among our friends, Josh is Jewish, but probably not this year since half our group is traveling. And it’s always just a secular holiday, none of us are any kind of religious. What about you, do you celebrate Christmas or anything with your boyfriend?”

“Well, my dad is Jewish, but he lives upstate. My friends whose apartment we’re staying at, Marina and Pete? They’re loosely Wiccan, although I think some of that is just for the shock factor. They don’t really ‘practice’ anything, though, but we were going to have dinner on Yule since we’re all four in New York at the same time.”

There, now all the contingencies were covered, just in case she’s around for the warding ceremony. And will hopefully excuse any weird shit Pete and Marina say or have around the house. She would need to get word to Penny before he accidentally Travels right in front of her, though. That would be hell to explain.

“Wiccan? That’s kinda cool, I knew a girl like that once. Are you wiccan too?”

Kady shrugged one shoulder. “Sometimes, yeah. Usually only around the holidays, it’s a good excuse to get together and drink.”

“Any holiday that’s got alcohol is a holiday I can approve of.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Kady maneuvered the car through the side-streets near the apartment, finding her usual parking garage with a few spots open in the early Thursday afternoon. They both stretched as they got out of the car, having only stopped briefly to fill up the tank and use the restroom. Kady grabbed their bags from the backseat and handed Julia’s to her as they left the car.

The apartment was a short walk away, and Kady led the way easily after having lived there for so long before moving to Chicago. It was in a plain-looking apartment building that was set up so each apartment had two floors, although there were multiple apartments on each floor. Marina had wanted one of the apartments on the top floor, even if it did make it a bit of a hike if the elevator was out of service. Until Penny had come along, at least.

Kady opened the door of the building and ushered Julia inside, and they made their way up to the apartment. She knocked three times before opening the door.

“Honey, I’m home!”

Pete was lounging on the window seat that they had put under the fireplace, even if it was only a foot off the floor. He stood up and slowly walked across to the door as if he had all the time in the world, the asshole. Kady rolled her eyes at him. Two could play at that game, so she waited until he was within reach to stick out her hand as if to shake his hand.

“Pete, how are you?”

He looked down at her hand and chuckled. “Damn Kitty, that’s just cold.” He had picked her up in a giant hug and spun her around before she had a chance to react, and she squealed and hugged him tightly.

“Put me down, jerk.” She smacked his shoulder until he did so. She huffed as she fixed her hair, trying not to grin at him.

He smirked back at her and yelled over his shoulder in the direction of the stairs. “Hey, ‘Rina! Kady-cat’s home, stop primping and get your ass down here.”

Marina’s reply came as she did, emerging down the spiral staircase with the elegance with which she did everything. “Fuck off, Pete, you spend longer in front of the mirror than I do and we all know it.”

Pete put a hand to his chest in mock-pain. “That’s just hurtful, Marina, I’m crushed. Besides, Kady’s new friend didn’t know that until you went and blabbed all my secrets.”

With a start, Kady realized she had forgotten about Julia in the exuberance of Pete’s greeting. She looked around and found the architect looking around at the columns that lined the main section from the door all the way down to the bar. The living space and dining room were on the left of the columns, facing the street they had come in from, and the kitchen, stairs, and a small bathroom were to the right. The columns were a rather unique feature, and gave the whole apartment an open feeling, with just one wall separating the living space from the dining room where the fireplace was. It was technically a fake fireplace since there wasn’t really a large enough chimney to house a real fire, but Marina had found ways to work around that.

“Julia, these are my friends, Pete and Marina. Guys, this is Julia, she was on the bus with me.” Julia had turned at her name and came back over to shake Pete and Marina’s hands. They both looked her up and down as obviously as they could, because of course they did. Marina whistled slowly.

“Damn, Kady, you sure know how to pick’em.”

Kady could feel her cheeks burning, but Julia just looked over at Marina with a raised eyebrow and snarked back, “Since I was the one who choose to sit next to her, I’ll take that credit, thanks. Although she did fall asleep on me afterward.”

Pete chuckled. “Yeah, you can stay. We like you.”

Kady groaned as she headed over to sit on one of the couches. Maybe this had been a bad idea. “You do remember that I have a boyfriend, right, guys?”

Marina shrugged. “Sure, but when has that stopped us ever? She’s cute, and witty.”

Julia smirked as she followed Kady, with the other two coming to sit in their usual spots on the other couch. “Your friends would get along with my friends El and Margo.”

Well, at least they weren’t scaring her off. That was good.

“So, what’s for dinner?”

“Oh, I just put the cauldron on to boil, I was going to whip up a delicious feast of bat wings and spider legs.” Goddamnit, Pete, why are you like this.

“That’s Halloween, dear. Winter is boiled holly and mistletoe soup, remember?” Marina joined in, smirking at Kady as she groaned and covered her face with her hands.

“Gods, why can’t you be normal people whenever I bring someone over.”

“Darling, if we were normal you wouldn’t recognize us, and you’d think some evil ghostie was getting up to mischief. Besides, this is more fun, right Pete?”

“Right. Don’t worry, it’s not like we’re going to cast a spell on your little friend here, I promise. That would break the statute of secrecy.”

Julia giggled. “At least you’ve read Harry Potter.”

Marina and Pete looked over at her, and then back at Kady, who was glaring at them from behind her fingers. Their twin expressions said ‘see? Everything is fine, calm down’, and Kady reluctantly stopped glaring and steered the conversation towards the latest movie she and Penny had seen, anything to get off the subject of magic.

The others allowed the switch of conversation, and Kady could relax without worrying that Julia would run for the hills or call the cops.


	7. Julia

Pete left to go grab takeout from down the street for dinner for everyone, after Julia assured him that she definitely would eat anything as long as it wasn’t bat wings. Pete had declared that he wasn’t going to cook and had laughed when Marina had started poking around the kitchen cabinets. Apparently she didn’t cook much, or well, which Julia could relate to, so Pete decided takeout was the safest option. He came back half an hour later with Thai food, and they all sat on the couches eating out of the cartons as they passed them around.

“So what do you do, Julia?” She turned to answer Marina but got interrupted by the door opening. She turned around in her seat as Kady got up and headed toward the guy who had walked in the door. Dressed smartly in a suit, he tossed the jacket onto the table near the door as soon as he got it off, and was fiddling with his tie as he turned around and saw Kady.

“Kady? What are you doing here?”

“Surprise?” Kady looked back at Marina. “I thought you told him when you said he coming over for dinner, ‘Rina!”

Marina smirked. “And ruin the surprise? Of course not!”

Kady pulled him into a hug, which he returned. He looked over and caught Julia’s eye as she sat there on the couch.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Julia winced as Kady smacked him on the chest.

“God, Penny, don’t be a douche. This is Julia, she was on the same bus as I was.”

“So you’re bringing home strays now?”

“I brought you home, didn’t I?”

Julia cleared her throat as Kady and Penny glared at each other. She stood up and offered her hand to Penny.

“Hi, I’m Julia. It’s nice to meet you, Penny.”

He looked at her silently and moved past them to head up the stairs. Marina nudged Julia with her shoulder, and she remembered that Marina had asked her a question.

“Um, yeah, I’m in school to be an architect. I still have a semester of classes left though, before I get my degree. What do you guys do?”

“I work as a teen counselor at one of the local centers, working with kids that have not-so-great home lives or traumatic pasts. A lot of foster kids, too. Pete works at a boring old junk shop.”

“It’s not a junk shop, Marina, it’s an eclectic pawnshop. I help the owner keep everything organized and do his books.”

“Wow, that’s cool.” She could see Pete doing a good smarmy salesman impression, even if she wouldn’t have pegged him for a bookie. Marina working with teenagers threw her for a loop, but she guessed maybe they could appreciate someone who would give them no-nonsense opinions and advice.

“No, it’s super lame.” Kady chimed in after sitting down next to Julia and Marina again. “But he does get to bring home some cool shit, so it has its perks.”

Julia laughed as she heard the stairs creak, and looked over to see Penny dressed in ripped black jeans and a red vest. It was a much better look for him than the suit he had been wearing previously. He came and sat down next to Pete without looking at anyone, and she raised an eyebrow in his direction.

“What do you do, Penny?” He grimaced and looked away, and Julia felt strangely victorious.

“I work for a bunch of librarians.”

That took her completely by surprise. “You’re a librarian?”

“No. I just work for them.” No one else said anything, and the way he said that sounded like the end of discussion. But Penny spoke again after a moment.

“They’re having a party tomorrow night.” He didn’t sound happy about it, and she wondered what the deal was.

“And let me guess, they want you to go.” Kady sounded surprisingly bitter, as if she didn’t like them any more than Penny did.

“Yeah. But they said we could bring people. So you could come to keep me company if you wanted.”

“I didn’t bring any clothes for that kind of thing.”

“Darling, I have plenty of things you can wear.” Marina chimed in. “Can Pete and I come? We haven’t been to a good party in ages, I miss getting all dolled up.”

Penny shrugged. “Sure, why not. Get all dolled up and give them a heart attack while you’re at it, huh, Pete?”

Pete grinned. “Definitely an option. What about you, Julia? Do you have any plans for tomorrow? You could spend the night, and I’m sure we can find something for you to wear in our closet.”

Julia looked over at Kady, not sure if she should accept the offer or not. Kady gave a one-sided shrug. “If you want to come, I’m sure Penny wouldn’t mind, right Pen?”

Penny smiled stiffly and seemed to have a conversation with Kady that Julia couldn’t hear. She expected him to be against her coming since he didn’t seem to like her. He looked at Pete and Marina before rolling his eyes and shrugging his indifference.

“Sure, if she wants to. The more people to talk to that aren’t stuffy librarians, the better.”

She considered the offer. “Well, I was planning on hanging out with my friend Quentin tomorrow after I go pick him up.”

“The more the merrier.” Marina leaned against Pete as she spoke, and he put an arm around her. “We’ll find something he can wear, I’m sure, we have an array of clothes between us and what these two left behind. He can even spend the night too if you don’t mind sharing the guest room bed.”

Julia caved to the group thinking. “Okay, I’ll talk to him tomorrow. He might have other plans, I’m not sure.”

“Do you have plans during the day? Kady doesn’t have plans, you could go do touristy things around the city.” Pete caught the pillow that Kady threw at him with ease, and tucked it under Marina’s head. “Thanks, Kitty.”

Kady sighed, and Julia grinned. Clearly, Kady’s friends were being difficult on purpose, and it made her miss El and Margo. This was the kind of thing they would get up to, even if Kady wasn’t interested in her and Julia wasn’t stupid enough to fall for someone in a relationship. She did think they could be friends, though, and wanted to spend more time with the other girl.

“I don’t have anything planned, actually, and I’d love some company. If you don’t have anything else to do.”

“No, I don’t have anything to do tomorrow. We can find some way to pass the time, I’m sure.”

“Great. Sounds like a plan.”

After a few minutes of silence broken by chewing as they finished off the last of the Thai food, Penny turned on the television and they settled down to a comfortable silence, watching random movies until a commercial break and then moving onto the next.

Eventually Julia began to doze off, especially considering she had Kady had had a long day and night before. Marina turned off the tv as the credits for The Princess Bride began to roll, although Julia had stopped paying attention somewhere around Miracle Max’s shop.

“Alright, bedtime. Come on, Pete, get up. Kady, we need to show Julia where she’s sleeping, in the guest bedroom next to you and Pen. Come on, people, up the stairs, move it.”

They all got up and Julia grabbed her bag as she followed Penny up the spiral stairs, Kady coming up behind her.

“Marina’s, mine, Kady and Penny’s, guest bedroom, that’s you, bathroom right down there.” Pete gave her a rundown on the layout of the second floor before disappearing with a ‘goodnight, loves’ into his corner room. Julia opened the door to the guest bedroom and found a full bed, a table, and a dresser. More than adequate for a night’s sleep, or maybe a few nights if she ends up going to this party. She said good night to the others as she closed the door, and fell asleep as soon as she laid down on the bed.


	8. Penny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Telepathic talking is in [brackets].

Penny followed Kady into their room silently and stood against the closed door watching as she got undressed and crawled into the bed.

“What’s wrong, Penny?” Kady spoke softly, but Penny knew how thin the walls in this apartment were even with some magical enhancements. He pointed at the wall that had the guest bedroom on the other side, and Kady raised an eyebrow.

[She’s just a girl I met on the bus. And she’s a muggle. What’s the big deal?]

Reading Kady’s mind just enough to pick up the surface thoughts, Penny projected his own at her.

[You don’t know her, she could be a spy! For Everett! Or -- or Irene!]

Kady scoffed. [She’s not a library spy and you know it. They don’t care about our little side jobs as long as we don’t steal anything from them again. I wouldn’t put it past Irene, but not even she isn’t good enough to have someone in the middle of nowhere in Illinois waiting just in case I took a bus somewhere.]

Penny scowled, but he had to admit she was right. The librarians might be assholes, but they didn’t care about much beyond the books they collected.

[It’ll be fine. I think you’ll like her if you get to know her. At least try to be nice.]

He finally moved from the door, stripping down to his boxers as he moved to the bed and joined her.

“Fine. I’ll try.” He kissed Kady, and they laid down to go to sleep, exhausted from their long days. Kady fell asleep in a few minutes, but Penny lay awake staring at the ceiling.

He eventually got up and Traveled down to the kitchen, figuring everyone would be asleep. He grabbed a beer out of the fridge and nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice spoke in the darkness.

“Grab me one.”

Penny grabbed her one and popped both lids off as he moved to the couch where Marina was looking at her notebook that had her counseling session notes in them. He sat down next to her, and she closed the notebook as she took the beer from him.

“Not in the mood to sleep?”

“I tried, didn’t work.”

“Jealous of Julia?”

Penny sputtered indignantly. “I am not jealous of her! I don’t even know her, why would I be jealous of some bitch I just met?”

Marina just raised an eyebrow at him.

“Because Kady met her, and liked her enough to invite her over. Plus you have to admit, the bus breaking down and stranding them there so they have to steal a car to make it here? That has cheesy-romance movie written all over it.”

“Wait, they stole a car? What the fuck?”

“Yeah, Kady called me and said they were stuck, so I told her to nut up and steal a car. She probably left money for it too, knowing her.”

“Why didn’t she just call me? I could have come and gotten her.”

“Right, that wouldn’t look suspicious at all. Besides, it was early, and you didn’t pick up your fucking phone. Do the Librarians have wards against all technology at that hotel or something?”

Penny shook his head. “No, I talked to her on the phone the first night -- oh. I went outside so I wouldn’t be overheard. Maybe they do, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“No, me neither.”

They were silent for a minute, sipping their beers.

“Okay, so I have this teenager. She’s not one of my official counseling kids, but I made an exception for her after I met her at a … well, it’s a long story. Her dad was a bit of an asshole but died when she was really young, and her mom is a boozed-up druggie. She not actually from New York, but she won’t tell me where she grew up. She’s apparently living in an abandoned building, but won’t say which one ‘in case I turn her in to the cops’.”

Penny smirked as Marina did air quotes. The girl had a solid head on her shoulders, he probably would have done the same thing if he had known a youth counselor when he was younger. “Smart kid, good street sense.”

Marina nodded. “Yeah, and that’s fine. But it’s fucking December and this girl Tandy is out there with no heat and no power in that building of hers. How the fuck am I supposed to do anything to help her if she’s too fucking skittish to accept my help?”

He thought about it. He remembered growing up in the foster system, and after that when he was on his own and thinking he was going insane because of the voices in his head. He had never trusted any of the adults and had avoided most of the kids too. He had learned to be a better thief, stealing things that people had left unattended and finding food wherever he could. Drugs too, when he had thought that would help, until he had ended up in rehab and met Kady. Luckily that part of his life is over now.

“Have you tried giving her scarves and blankets?”

“Of course, but she says she doesn’t need anything, that she’s got it all covered. Which is bullshit, I know. But if she won’t take it from me, how do I give them to her?”

Penny shrugged. “You don’t,”

She smacked his shoulder. “Not helpful, asshole.”

He winced. “If you let me finish a damn sentence before beating on me, woman, I would be more helpful. Anyway, don’t give them directly to her. Leave a scarf on your desk, or a blanket on the chair by the door. Find an excuse to turn around, or leave the room entirely, and don’t comment on the items when they go missing. If she thinks she’s outsmarting you, she won’t balk at getting new things. And she must like you, so she probably thinks if you somehow catch her you won’t call the cops on her for stealing your shit.”

Marina had furrowed her forehead as he talked and was nodding. “That might actually work. Thanks, Penny. Any other tips?”

“Maybe start leaving snacks like granola bars on the front desk of the center, for anyone to take. Or on your desk, at least. Or chocolate. Or condoms.” She smacked him again. “What?! I’m just saying, better to give the kid a condom than to have another pregnant teenager living out on the streets.”

“Tandy’s not that type of girl. But I have a few boys and girls and enbys that are, so that’s still probably a good idea.”

“All my ideas are good ideas.” Penny held his hands up before she could smack him a third time. “It was a joke. I know, I’m a man who has stupid ideas sometimes, just like women have stupid ideas sometimes.”

She smirked. “Exactly. Equal opportunity stupid-idea-having, we’re all fucking idiots some of the time. Just like you’re being an idiot about this Julia nonsense.”

Penny rolled his eyes, but Marina nudged him. “No, listen. You and Kady? Nothing is going to break that up, you’ve been through too much shit together. We’ve all been through some shit, it just brought us closer together. A smart and pretty architect isn’t going to steal her away from you. You and Kady are a package deal. I wouldn’t blame her if she decided to go for the whole package, though.”

Penny sighed, and then blinked as her last words caught up to him. “Normal people don’t swing like that, Marina, the fuck is wrong with you.”

“Nothing, asshole, you’re just very attractive people and you fucking know it. Besides, normal people are fucking boring. Just try to have an open mind and a nicer attitude, okay? Now, I need some sleep. See you in the morning.”

She left, and Penny settled in to think about everything she said.

Sure, Julia was pretty. Penny might have considered making a pass at her before he had met Kady. But nothing was going to happen now, because he loves Kady, regardless of Marina and her ideas about fucking threesomes. Although he probably wouldn’t turn it down if they offered, if he was being honest with himself. Which they wouldn’t, because people don’t just do that, regardless of whatever Marina and Pete thought about conventional dating rules.

Penny shook his head. He didn’t have time to worry about this, he had another boring day of librarians to deal with in the morning. He needed to get some fucking sleep and take advantage of not being press-ganged into staying at that hotel every night now that Kady was in town. Zelda might be one of the fuckers he had to work with, but she was easier to handle now that she had managed to convince Everett that Penny wasn’t running off to make shady deals or whatever, as long as he stayed in the city. The fact that Everett had believed her was a gift horse Penny wasn’t going to look in the mouth, the paranoid fucker, even if he really wasn’t making any shady deals.

He took Marina’s empty bottle with his own to the recycling and Traveled upstairs to his room. Kady turned back towards him as he got back into the bed, and he fell asleep with her in his arms.


	9. Kady

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, I know nothing about NYC or traffic or winter weather there, so there might be some hand-wavy descriptions in the next few chapters.

Kady woke up as Penny’s alarm shrilled in the early morning. Groaning, he turned it off and left for the bathroom. Kady thought about going back to sleep but she could hear voices downstairs and, remembering her trip and traveling companion from the day before, she got up and found clothes to throw on. Marina’s bedroom door was cracked open and sure enough, she was downstairs talking with Julia at the kitchen counter.

“Coffee?” Kady nodded in thanks as Marina pointed to the coffee machine on the counter behind her, the machine happily bubbling away. She grabbed the mug she always used when she was here, white with black lettering that said ‘shhh’ and had a middle finger on the bottom, and poured herself a cup. She noticed that Julia already had a mug, with the flowing script that said ‘goddess of sarcasm’ on it. Kady smirked, remembering getting that one for Pete as a birthday gift one year.

“You’re up early.” Marina raised an eyebrow at her, and Kady shrugged.

“Penny’s fucking alarm went off, and then I could hear you two talking.” She raised her own eyebrow at them, a silent question of what they were talking about.

“I was just asking Julia if she had any plans for today when you two go play tourist.”

Julia nodded in confirmation, holding up her phone. “I googled ‘top things to do in NYC’ if we’re going to play tourist, as Marina put it. We could go to the Met, or wander around Central Park.”

“There’s an ice skating rink at Central Park. Kady’s pretty good at it, we used to go and skate with some friends of ours.” Kady rolled her eyes at Marina. Some of their friends had learned that they had never been ice skating, and had made it their mission to teach them. And since Lenny and Lisa were very good, the rest of them ended up being half-way decent skaters when they went out on the ice. Even if they had only ever used the Central Park rink in the middle of the night when most of the tourists were gone.

“Ice skating is fun, we can do that if you’d like. And I’m sure we’ll be able to find other things to do, especially around Central Park during the holiday season. We can just walk around and see what catches our fancy.”

“Ice cream.” Kady jumped as Pete walked in, not having heard him come down the stairs as she talked.

“It’s December, jackass, they’re not getting ice cream.”

“That’s the best time to get ice cream. When it’s cold enough outside that the ice cream feels warm.”

“There’s something wrong with you.” Kady smirked as Marina swatted him gently on the arm as he passed by to get his own cup of coffee.

“That’s actually not terrible logic,” Julia began, and Pete pointed at her in triumph, but then she continued, “But I still think I’m going to pass, sorry, Pete.”

His face fell as he put a hand to his heart. “You wound me, deeply. Fine, but you’re missing out, I’m just sayin’.”

Julia grinned, turning to Kady unexpectedly. “Is Penny coming down?”

She nodded, blinking as if she hadn’t just been watching her as she made fun of Pete, not at all. “Yeah, he’ll be down soon. He’s usually pretty quick to get ready, and he’s more of a morning person than I am.”

“Yeah, except on the weekends. Then the both of you would sleep the whole morning away if you could.” Marina chimed in, nudging Julia conspiratorially.

Kady shrugged. “Considering we all used to go to bed at dawn, I feel no shame. I like my sleep, okay?”

Pete nodded, pointing at Marina. “Just because you get up at a ridiculous time doesn’t mean we all need to.”

“You get up almost as early as I do.”

“No, I wait until the sun comes up, not five o’clock in the morning like you. I don’t understand why you get up that early anyway, you don’t have counseling until nine most days.”

“It takes time to look as good as this.” Marina waved a hand up and down at herself, and Kady took a second to take in her outfit. She was wearing a black-and-gray tunic that cut from shoulder to shoulder instead of down the neck and a black skirt underneath, with patterned net leggings and black boots that cut a sharp image with her usual red lipstick and dark eye makeup.

“Don’t lie, you can do that in twenty minutes, I’ve seen you do it Andrieski.” Pete slid onto the last stool at the counter next to Marina. “You just enjoy being awake to watch the rest of us suffer in the early morning.”

Julia smirked into her coffee cup, and Kady groaned. “Oh no, not you too. Are you an early bird like her?”

She grinned. “Guilty as charged. Although my three best friends are all lazy sods like the rest of you.”

Kady cocked her head. “I resent that implication, thank you very much. I’m not lazy, I just like my sleep when I can get it.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself. Quentin says the same thing. His boyfriend Eliot says he and Margo are giving the peasants a chance to prepare themselves before emerging in all their glory.”

Pete snorted. “I like them, they sound delightful.”

“That’s because they sound as dramatic as you, Pete.” Kady and Marina broke into giggles as Pete pouted at Marina, and Julia joined them. Kady had just gotten her breath back as she heard Penny’s footsteps on the stairs. He came into the kitchen area dressed very similar to the day before, in a grey suit and boring tie. The library had given him a dress code for the conferences he had to attend like this one, instead of being able to wear his usual attire. Something about wanting to put on a good front for their clients, although Penny had never seen any clients at any of these conferences. He was pretty sure they were just fucking around with him.

“‘Morning.” He made his way over to get his own mug and leaned against the counter next to Kady as he drank it. She saw Julia tilting her head to read the text on it, a black mug with white writing that said, “I’m sorry, did I roll my eyes out loud?”

Noticing her trying to read it, Penny turned the mug so she could see it properly and let a small smile grow on his face as she laughed. Kady grinned too, glad that he was in a better mood toward her than the evening.

He looked over and caught her eye, shrugging slightly as she raised an eyebrow at him. She watched his gaze flick over towards Marina, but if there was a significance to that Kady didn’t know what it was.

“What time is your shindig tonight, again?” Pete asked Penny, drawing all of their attention back to Penny as he swallowed his last sip of coffee.

“Seven. I’m under strict instructions to not be late, according to Everett.”

“What a pretentious ass.” Marina mutters, and Penny lifts his cup toward her in salute.

“Can’t argue with you there. Anyway, I should be going, can’t be late. See you all tonight.” Penny took his mug to the sink and rinsed it out before putting it in the dishwasher. Kady stood and walked to the door with him as he said goodbye to the others, and got a kiss before he left. She shut the door and headed back to the others, looking over at Julia.

“So, ready to go play New York City tourist?”


	10. Julia

Julia got out of their ‘borrowed’ Chevy as Kady turned the engine off. They had decided to come to Central Park and see what they could find to do in the area, and had found parking a few blocks away from the ice rink. Kady led the way to the stairs and they walked down the three flights to get to the ground floor, and then turned towards the park.

The crowds are out in force, with only five days until Christmas so many people are doing last-minute shopping, and Julia linked her hand with Kady’s to avoid getting separated in the chaos. If she avoided looking at Kady to see her reaction, well, that was her own business. But Kady didn’t pull away and even tugged her closer when a gust of wind blew past them.

“You know how you can live somewhere and never do the typical tourist things? I rarely came to Central Park. My parents were usually too busy to take my sister and me when I was younger, and by the time we were old enough to go by ourselves we had school and other things to occupy ourselves.”

Kady nodded. “Yeah, I lived in the city since I was seventeen until six months ago, and I’ve never been to see the Statue of Liberty. I’ve seen her, of course, but never done the whole ‘boat ride and climb up the stairs inside’ thing.”

“I’ve been once. For a school trip.” Julia had been distracted by the idea of a giant statue, and had spent the entire time counting the number of steps to the top to see if the dimensions would pan out correctly from what her history textbooks said.

They could see green just past the end of the block they had turned on, with one of those horse-drawn carriages that circles the park trotting down the perpendicular street.

“Another thing I’ve never done.” Kady gestured with her free hand, and Julia nodded. She’d never done that either. And then an idea struck her.

“Did you know they have horse-back riding along the trails? We could do that, if you’re interested.”

Kady looked over at her. “I’ve never been on a horse before. But we could, if you want. I’ve always wondered what that would be like.”

Julia grinned. “Oh, I’ll make sure you don’t fall off, don’t worry.”

Kady nodded slowly. “I’m trusting you to not let me fall and make a fool of myself. Let’s go see how much the tickets are.”

They headed toward the horse stables, and Kady told Julia that she should go look at the horses and pick out a couple of nice-looking ones for them while she went to see about tickets. Julia did and spent the next few minutes admiring the horses from afar. When Kady got back, she was followed by a brunette girl who introduced herself as Daine. She went and actually got the horses for them, although Julia did help get them saddled with the young woman checking her work after and finding it satisfactory. Julia gave Kady a crash course in how to get in the saddle, and gave her a boost up with interlocked hands and helped her with the stirrups.

Julia mounted up onto the golden palomino that had been chosen for her with Daine’s help, and showed Kady how to sit properly and hold the reins. She taught her to squeeze the black horse with her legs to get him to move, to lean back to stop, and look where she wanted the horse to go. Daine led them out of the training area, gave them some final tips and safety regulations, and told them that their horses were named Moonlight, Julia’s mare, and Darkness, Kady’’s gelding.

“Darkness?” Kady ran a hand down her black horse’s neck. “That seems a bit dramatic, doesn’t it?”

Daine laughed. “The tourists like having edgy names for the horses. I mean, not very many people would want to ride a horse named Chubby, at least according to my boss.”

Julia smirked. “I suppose that’s true. Just, now I’m curious, is there a horse named Chubby here?”

Daine shook her head. “Not here. Chubby was the first horse I ever rode, he was actually a pony. A fat little pony, hence the name. Anyway, you should be all good to go. Enjoy your ride, okay?”

Julia nodded her thanks and clicked her tongue at the palomino. Kady’s Darkness followed Moonlight as Julia moved onto the trail, and soon the two horses were walking side by side.

She looked over at Kady, who was grinning back at her.

“Are you having fun?”

“Hell yeah. How did you learn to ride?”

“Oh, at Alice’s. Her aunt ran a horse farm, you can’t stay there for very long before picking up a thing or two about riding. I’m not a natural or anything, but I can keep the horses under control.”

“Well, you look like you’re doing a great job to me.”

Julia smiled. “Thanks. Oh, how much were the tickets? I forgot to ask when you got back with Daine.”

Kady shook her head. “I knew one of the attendants, he’s one of Marina’s kids. He gave us a discount, especially since the paths aren’t as busy as they would be on the weekend.”

“That’s nice of him.”

“His girlfriend shows up at Pete’s shop to hawk stuff all the time, so we know them pretty well. At least, I think Parker is his girlfriend. She might be with this other boy, another of Marina’s teens. I’m never really sure who’s dating who in that trio of kids honestly. They could all be dating, I’m not one to judge.”

Julia hummed in agreement. She knew people who had that kind of threesome relationship, Eliot and Margo and their fuck-of-the-weeks before El started dating Q came to mind. As long as people were careful and respectful of each other, she supposed they could do whatever they liked with whomever they wanted to do it with.

“It’s the twenty-first century, people need to be more open-minded. And if not, well then, it’s none of their fucking business.”

Kady grinned. “Preaching to the choir, girl, not that I’m complaining. Pete says stuff like that all the time.”

“Good.” The horses plodded along, and Julia pulled Moonlight to a stop on one of the bridges that the trails went over. Luckily Darkness was more than happy to follow the mare’s lead, and he came to a stop as well before Kady had even lifted the reins. “Wow, look at that view.”

It was gorgeous, with a light covering of snow lying across the grass it looked like something out of a Christmas card. Even a native New Yorker like her could appreciate the view when the silence made it seem like she and Kady were the only people on the planet at that moment.

Of course, then a car would honk or rev their engine and the spell would be broken. There were still people out on the paths too, even some others on horseback like them, scurrying from place to place. The city was never really silent, and Julia realized how much she had missed the hustle-and-bustle atmosphere when she was on the farm with Alice. The calm of the countryside was nice and it was what she had needed at the time, but she realized that she was truly happy to be back in New York.

And it wasn’t just the company, although that certainly didn’t hurt.


	11. Kady

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some discussion/flashback to very-minor-death, drugs/alcohol, depression, rehab, and mental hospitals in this chapter.
> 
> I don't know how accurate the rehab portrayal is, since all my knowledge comes from movies, books, and other fic, but I tried my best.

They headed back to the stable after a few more minutes of enjoying the view. Kady had enjoyed the ride more than she had thought she would, although she winced as she dismounted with Julia’s help. Her muscles were sore, unused to sitting like that for the hour and a half they were on the trails. Julia suggested walking around the park a bit to stretch their legs after the ride and Kady immediately agreed. They grabbed hot dogs from a stand and ate them as they strolled along.

“So, how far do we have to go to meet up with your friend?” Kady hadn’t even asked where he was, all she knew was that he got out of a hospital somewhere in the city around four this afternoon.

Julia paused, and Kady saw her wince out of the corner of her eye. After a beat of silence, she spoke.

“Okay, so Q is at the Elsworth Downs Mental Health Clinic. He was only there voluntarily, he just had a hard time processing some things, he’s not, like, dangerous or anything. I know it’s weird, but …”

Julia kept talking, but Kady was no longer listening. She remembered Ellsworth Downs. She had stayed there for almost six months.

Her mother Hannah had sent her to live with her dad when Kady was fifteen because she’d gotten into some trouble and didn’t want it to blow back onto her daughter. Kady had fought her tooth and nail not to go, wanting to stay with her on the road living the transient lifestyle that was all she’d ever known. But Hannah had eventually won, and Kady had been sent to upstate New York.

She had hated it there. It was too quiet, all the kids were pushovers, and her dad kept trying to inflict ‘good parenting rules’ on her, like a curfew and no cursing and shit. Needless to say, she sent plea after plea to her mom to be allowed back, and her mom had told her that when it was safe she would send for her.

Kady had left upstate as soon as she could, and sooner than legality allowed, but her dad knew it was a losing battle and she would go anyway. At seventeen she was living on her own in the city, making ends meet in any way possible. She danced in clubs like her mother and sang on street corners, earning money the only way she knew how.

She had met Marina and Pete at a club where she danced, a classy joint called Free Trader Beowulf. Marina had been in charge of the dancers and making sure they knew their routines, and Pete had been half-bouncer and half-performer. Everything had been fine, if not easy, but at least they were living within their means and enjoying life when they could.

Then Kady had gotten a call. Her mother had died. She didn’t know the details, just that it was hedge in-fighting. She was only twenty, and she hadn’t seen her mom in five years.

She broke. She stopped going to work, didn’t leave her bedroom unless her friends came and dragged her into the kitchen of her shitty apartment. She started doing drugs, the hard stuff, bought from a neighbor who was a dealer. Irene threatened to fire her if she didn’t come back, so Kady quit. That was the last straw for Marina, and she checked Kady into Ellsworth Downs. With Kady’s permission, but Kady didn’t really care where she was as long as people left her alone.

Marina and Pete came almost every day to tell her about the goings-on at the club and the hedge world, but Kady doesn’t remember most of it. Even after the withdrawal symptoms passed she just stared at walls and ceilings, and at the therapists as they tried to get her to ‘talk her feelings out’. She finally screamed at them to fuck off and didn’t vocalize another word after that to anyone.

Five months went by like that, Kady silent and staring like a ghost until one day a brash voice shook her out of her reverie. It had been Penny, yelling at the person in charge of whatever group session she had been sitting in. Apparently the lead guy had tried to insult Kady to get her to do something besides blink at him, and Penny told him to go fuck himself as he sprawled into the chair next to her.

“If she doesn’t want to talk she doesn’t have to. You don’t know what she’s been through, so leave her the fuck alone.”

Kady had turned and looked at him then. This young Indian man with baggy clothes and a devil-may-care attitude, posturing next to her so that all the attention was on him instead of her. She didn’t say anything but was silently thankful to him. His eyes cut to her sharply, and then he winked.

She eventually ended up sitting next to him in all their group meetings, and on the couch in the rec room. It was the closest anyone had been able to get to her without her shying away, aside from Marina and Pete. The therapists were mystified.

Penny would talk to her, and didn’t seem to mind that she didn’t answer him. He quietly told her about people he had met on the streets, and stories from foster homes across the country. Kady would silently wonder something about one of the stories, and within a sentence or two Penny would casually answer her question. It had confused her, and she didn’t get an answer until later, but it was strangely comforting. Whenever anyone else would come near them, he would glare and begin talking loudly about people he knew in the mob. He never said which mob and Kady was pretty sure he was making it up, but it worked to keep other people at bay with rumors of hitmen and assassinations.

One night they had been curled up together on the rec room couch after hours, and he told her about the voices he heard. He told her about being terrified that he was going crazy, and his attempts to keep them at bay with drugs, booze, music. He told her that her mind was different, a tempest of emotion that only raged in her mind without cutting loose and spilling into his. She had leaned against his shoulder as he ran his hand through her hair, a now-familiar motion that calmed them both.

“Psychic?” Her voice was scratchy with disuse, only used recently to scream in her sleep and growl and hiss at the orderlies.

Penny had tensed. “Fuck no, I hate that word!”

Kady thought for a minute. “Mind slut?”

He had stared down at her. “Why the fuck are you so calm?”

“You’re not,” she coughed, throat dry, “not the first psychic I’ve met.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

She opened her mouth to tell him but fell into a fit of coughing again, and he rubbed her shoulders until it subsided.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk. According to the rumors, they’re the first words you’ve said since you’ve been here.”

She shook her head, but silently laid back against him anyway. They were quiet for a few minutes, and Kady had almost fallen asleep when he spoke again, quiet enough that she had to strain to hear the words.

“Thank you. For not thinking I’m a freak.”

She nuzzled into his neck, and he let out a huff of laughter. “No, I mean it. No one has ever believed me before.”

“I believe you.”

The next day, she dragged him over to meet Marina and Pete when they came and introduced them.

Penny was released after thirty days. He had lied to the therapists, telling them that ‘hearing voices’ was a story he had made up for the cops that had picked him up on the street, to get a warm bed and three meals a day. Kady had decided that she was leaving with him and used the ten days after she ‘miraculously’ began speaking again to convince the therapist, a nice lady named Grace, that she was on the mend. It wasn’t exactly true but her mind was less chaotic, and having a goal gave her a mask to slip on to pretend to be ‘fixed’. And if she maybe used magic to edit the records just a little, well. That was no one’s business but her own.

They made it out, and Penny came to live with them at the apartment Marina and Pete had bought after quitting their own jobs at the club. Kady had tried to apologize for, well, everything, but they hugged her and kissed her and told her that it wasn’t her fault. And maybe they stole some things from Irene before they left, to be able to afford the apartment, but she was a cold-hearted bitch who deserved it.

“Kady?” She started. Julia was looking at her with concern, and Kady realized that she had been so lost in memories that she had stopped walking in the middle of the path. Julia tugged her out of the way of a runner that passed by, and Kady shook her head to clear her thoughts.

“Are you okay?”

Kady laughed. “Depends on the day, but yeah, mostly. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Just, I’ve been there.”

Julia’s brow furrowed. “Been where?”

“Ellsworth.” Kady gave her a shortened version of events as they continued walking, leaving out meeting Penny and any mentions of magic. She told her briefly about her mother’s death and spiraling into depression and drugs, and made it seem like she was only at the clinic as a poor man’s rehab. Which was true, even if it wasn’t the entire story. She told Julia about Penny, Marina, and Pete eventually pulling her out of the rut she had been in.

It was the most truthful she had been with a near-stranger in a long time.

Probably since she had met Penny.


	12. Julia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discussions of past abusive relationships and coercive sex (but not non-con, or at least that isn't how I intended it), because Reynard is a dick.

Julia was thinking the story Kady had told her, marveling in the knowledge that this strong, beautiful girl had something awful happen in her life and she hadn’t known how to handle it. Instead of telling her to pull her shit together, as Julia’s family had done to her multiple times, her friends got her the help she needed and gave her time to process everything. No judgment or anything.

Her friends had done the same for Julia, after Reynard. Once she got up the courage to tell them about her then-boyfriend being abusive, Margo and Eliot and Q had rallied behind her. It had been the first time in her life that she had been believed from the start without having to produce evidence for someone. Her mother had never believed her, saying, “Oh, he’s such a nice boy, he would never.”

Quentin had asked her why she had waited so long to tell him. He had been hurt, and understandably so. He had told her everything, all his hopes and fears since they had been little kids together. She had been the first person he had told about thinking he was actually a boy, one night as they were curled up together at a sleepover. She had hugged him and decided his name would be Q until he picked one that he liked better, and was the rock behind him as he told his parents. His parents, who loved and supported him in ways her parents never could, and who loved her as a daughter whenever she was at their house.

Even being friends with Q and his family for so long, she still held back. Because she had been raised to show no weakness and never give anyone anything they could use against her. Margo had seen that when she and Q had met Eliot and Margo late one night at the coffee shop/bakery Josh ran. It took no time at all for El and Margo to adopt Q as part of theirs, but Julia had stayed back, afraid to get too close to these loud, happy drunk people.

It took three months of hovering on the periphery before Margo had dragged her up to her room. Julia had barely any time to look around the elegant space before Margo had sat her on the bed and said, “Fuck them.” Julia had been confused, but Margo continued by telling her that whoever told her she didn’t need friends to rely on, whoever told her that letting people care about her was weakness, they were wrong. Julia had balked at the implication, but Margo had told her that she had been just like Julia once. Cold-hearted, closed off, always a mask and hard, glossy armor to protect herself. She had been raised like that, it was all she had known until she had met Eliot.

“Eliot is like your Quentin. They care too damn much about everyone around them that they would cut out their own hearts if they thought it would help someone. We need to be there to protect them, we need to be the strong ones. But that doesn’t mean that we have to keep ourselves closed off, especially from our friends. Our chosen family.”

Julia had started to share more with them after that, giving in and lowering the walls she had built up to protect herself. But something had held her back from telling them about Reynard, some last inkling that they wouldn’t believe her just like her mother hadn’t. Besides, how did you tell your friends that the boy you’d been dating since senior year of high school had been emotionally and physically abusing you for the entire two years that you’d been dating?

“You probably think I’m a freak junkie now.” Kady’s quiet voice snapped Julia back to the present, and she glanced over at the other girl.

“No. Definitely not. I was just wishing parents would react to things the same way that our friends do.” She winced, sure that none of that made sense, but Kady laughed. It was a slightly manic laugh, but it was a laugh nonetheless.

“Parents aren’t supposed to understand the way our friends do. There’s too much of a gap in what they went through when they were our age and what we go through. Add to that the fact that they are determined to think that we’re never old enough to make our own decisions, and you have the perfect recipe for misunderstanding. At least that’s what Marina and Pete say, my mom and dad were both too into the hippie vibe to have a normal parental reaction to anything.”

Julia smiled wryly. “Pete and Marina are right. My parents never gave a damn about me or my sister, just how we reflected back on them. Mom was too busy being successful, and if we ever stepped out of the carefully constructed images she had crafted for us, we caught hell for it when no one was looking.”

“God, what a drag. That sucks.”

“It did. But now I don’t have to see them unless I want to, and I have great friends to lean on instead. Just like you had Marina and Pete back then, although I ran a little further away to get a grip on my problems.”

She could see Kady glance sharply at her from the periphery of her vision as she watched a mother hurry her small child down the path. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Kady had been open with her, and Julia knew that she didn’t have to share anything, but she wanted to.

“I had this boyfriend. He was a real fucking piece of work, and he had me convinced that I loved him. We dated for two years, the last year of high school and the first of college. Not the same college, but still in New York. Anyway, he would say awful shit about me all the time, how I was stupid and worthless and ugly, and I would just take it. Then he started hitting me when I didn’t want to have sex with him all the time. He told me that he deserved some kind of reward for putting up with me, and complained that I could at least pretend to like it.”

“Pretend to like … getting hit?”

Julia shook her head, blushing a little. “No, pretend to like sex. I don’t really, it doesn’t do anything for me. Sometimes it can be nice, but cuddling on the couch is just as nice without all the mess. It’s weird, I know.”

Kady shook her head. “No, it’s not. Asexuality is uncommon, sure, but it’s not weird and it doesn’t make you broken or defective or anything like that. You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with, ever. And anyone who says otherwise can deal with me. Including this asshole ex-boyfriend of yours, can you tell me his name? I need to go beat the shit out of him. What a fucking douchebag, I can’t believe he said that shit to you! And coercing someone into having sex with them because ‘they deserve it?’ What the actual fuck? Seriously, I will happily beat his ass into a fucking pulp if you tell me where I can find him.”

Julia watched Kady as she ranted, waving her arms around expressively. She hadn’t expected this reaction. Although she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t, now that she knew that Kady and her friends acted in similar ways to her own friends. They had been ready to go after Reynard with pitchforks and law textbooks until Julia had begged them to just drop it. She hadn’t wanted to think about it, and when that didn’t work she ran off to Alice’s horse farm.

Kady eventually stopped to take a breath, and Julia grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. “Thank you.”

“For what? I haven’t kicked his ass yet.”

“And I don’t know where he is, so you’re not going to, okay? Just let it go. Please.”

Kady opened her mouth to argue but shut it after a long minute. “If that’s really what you want, okay.”

“It is. If I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know. Well, after Quentin. And Margo.”

She nodded, and Julia sighed as she began walking down the path again, hand in hand with the other girl.

“I was going a little crazy in New York after I left him, so I took a semester off and fled to Illinois. After I finally told Q and the others and made them promise not to do anything stupid. Alice gave me a place to heal at my own pace, and no one judged me for running away from my problems.”

“It’s not running away, it’s getting a fresh perspective on something from a distance. Healing from traumatic events takes time, even if you don’t think you’ve been through a ‘trauma’ like society thinks of it. Society is wrong about a lot of things. Including the idea that a relationship needs to have sex in it to be a real relationship.”

“So, you’re okay with the whole asexual thing?”

“Of course, not that my opinion matters when it comes to your sex life. Or lack thereof, you get the point.”

Julia grinned. “You’re full of quotes straight off of a motivational poster. I’m impressed.”

Kady smirked at her. “Don’t be, I stole most of them from Marina. She has a foster kid who’s ace, and apparently listening to her rant about wanting to be able to scream at the kid’s foster parents has paid off, I’m full of pithy quotes about letting people be people without judging them. Rule number one, don’t be a dick.”

She snorted. “Please tell me she has that on a poster somewhere.”

“Nah, the center wouldn’t allow it. But she still tells it to her kids whenever she needs to, they think it’s hilarious.”

“Her kids are right.”

They turned a bend in the path and saw the ice skating rink ahead of them. Julia felt a nudge on her shoulder and looked over at Kady, who was grinning.

“Wanna go ice skating?”

Julia looked back at the rink. “I mean, we do have time. I haven’t been ice skating in years, though, are you sure?”

Kady nodded. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall.”


	13. Kady

Kady steadied Julia as they skated slowly around the edge of the rink, with Julia clutching at her arm to stay upright. She swore under her breath as her foot slipped again and Kady laughed.

“Don’t laugh, I know I look like a newborn foal.” Julia started to let go of her arm, but ended up holding on tight again as they reached the curved section of the rink.

“Here, let’s try a different position. Hold onto my other arm for a second.” She tried to ignore the only-in-her-head whisper of ‘kinky’ from an imaginary Pete as Kady maneuvered behind Julia and wrapped her arms around the other girl, her longer reach allowing Julia to grab both her forearms without being pressed against her back or tangling their feet.

“Just move with me, okay? Right foot slide, left foot slide, right, left…” Kady whispered instructions as she moved slowly forward and Julia copied her. She tried to focus on their movements, but she had Julia’s hair in her face and could smell the jasmine shampoo that she had used that morning.

“Where’d you learn to skate? I’ve lived in New York all my life and only been here maybe twice.”

“It wasn’t here, it was a little rink outside the tourist-trap streets. A friend of mine, Lisa, she taught me, her and her brother. They were good, she could have been in the Olympics if they had the money for it.”

“Wow. That’s cool.” Julia spoke carefully as she started to get the rhythm of the strides down. “So, you said your parents were hippies.”

“Yeah, my dad wore Birkenstocks and sold weed to the neighbors. He had a total hippie vibe going, even if I only stayed with him for a few years as a teenager.”

“Really? Where were you before that?”

“Traveling with my mom. She had a … a nomadic lifestyle, we spent days on the road moving from place to place. A lot of her friends were like that, always searching for the next gig or show.” And new magic spells and artifacts, but Julia didn’t need to know about that part.

“What did she do?”

“She danced, mostly, although she sang in dive bars when we were passing through towns that didn’t have strip clubs. Sometimes she played the guitar, too.”

“Your mom was a stripper?”

“Yeah, but don’t knock it. She was good, and she liked it. Plus, it paid for piano lessons.” Kady paused, wondering if she should tell Julia that she had done the same thing, that she had met Marina and Pete in a strip club when she was nineteen.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so shocked.” Julia shivered in the cold air, and Kady wrapped her arms closer around the other girl as they slowly skated around the edges of the rink.

“It’s okay, most people are. I danced for a while, too, when I moved to New York to live on my own. It was a good job, and I met my best friends there.”

“Penny worked at a strip club?” Julia had turned her head and given Kady a side-glance full of disbelief, and Kady snorted.

“Oh, god no. Marina and Pete did, though. Marina was in charge of the dancers, and Pete was a bouncer. Well, and occasionally a drag queen.”

“Pete was a drag queen?” Julia stopped moving, and Kady ran into her back. “Shit, sorry.”

“It’s okay, here, let’s sit.” Kady led her to a bench on the side of the rink and they sat down side by side. “Yeah, Pete was a drag queen. Still is, sometimes, when the clubs have special events. His stage name is Lovelady.”

“Lovelady? Seriously? Actually, no, I believe that.”

Kady smirked. “It started off as a joke apparently, Pete blames the whole thing on Marina. She hasn’t denied it, though, she usually just tells him he’s welcome.”

“Amazing.”

They’re quiet for a minute, watching the skaters as they skated by their bench.

“So, what are your parents like?” Kady broke the silence finally, curious to learn more about Julia.

“Self-important political bitch of a mother who drove my genius dad to drink, so she sent him off to rot in a ‘country house’ so he couldn’t blow her career. He went full Einstein there, trying to solve some kind of time-travel problem, and she pretended he didn’t exist. My sister Kenzie and I had to fend for ourselves and tried to stay out of her way. We made sure to get good grades and stuff so that we wouldn’t be disappointments and rain on her parade, and she left us alone to our own devices as long as we didn’t end up in the press.”

“Jeez, she sounds like a piece of work. That sucks.”

Julia shrugged. “Yeah, but Quentin and his family were my second family away from her, so it all worked out. Q’s parents are amazing, the type of nice and normal parents that everyone always talks about but no one actually has, ya know?”

Kady nodded. “Yeah, I know the type, that must be nice.” Kady looked around and spied a bodega just past the rink. “Hey, want to go check out that little shop? They might have hot chocolate, it’s getting chilly out.”

Julia agreed and they took off their skates to return them at the rental shop. They walked over to the bodega and slipped inside, sighing as warm air swarmed around them as the door shut. It was a cute but quirky shop, full of bits and bobs with a counter that did indeed sell hot chocolate and coffee. Julia went to the counter as Kady stopped to look at some of the magnets and necklaces hanging on racks near the door.

Marina and Pete would love this place, Kady decided as she ran her fingers over magnets that said things like ‘Go Away’ and ‘Fuck Off’. She laughed as she saw some of those best friend broken heart necklaces, and as she moved closer she saw what they said. “Best Bitches”, that’s perfect. She grabbed one and went up to the counter, where Julia was waiting for their hot chocolate.

“Can I buy this, too?” Kady passed the necklaces over to the young black woman at the till, whose name tag read ‘Gwen’. She grinned and rang it and the coffees up, passing the necklaces back to Kady.

“Those are my girlfriend Freya’s favorite, too.”

Kady smirked. “Good taste.”

“What does it say?” Julia leaned over to grab one of the necklaces and laughed when she read it. “Wow, that’s amazing. Who’s it for, Marina?”

“No, Marina wouldn’t wear anything like that. It’s for you, we’re best bitches now.” She handed Julia the other half of the necklace and grabbed her drink from Gwen.

“Good, I like it.” Julia grabbed her own chocolate and they headed out of the shop. “It’s about time to go pick up Q.”

Kady checked her watch and nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”


	14. Quentin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another rehab/mental hospital section, again, take with a grain of salt.
> 
> Also self-deprecating trans panic, if that makes any sense, I don't know how to phrase it any better. Blink-and-you-miss-it, but I'm saying it's there just to be on the safe side for any of my fellow nb/trans folk.

Quentin sat in the armchair facing his appointed therapist as she went over her notes. Dr. Holloway, or Jean as she insisted her clients call her, looked up at him as she closed her notebook and crossed her legs.

“So you think you’re ready.”

Quentin nodded, fiddling with a quarter as nervous energy coursed through him. “I do.” When she asked why he shrugged slightly. “I feel better.”

“Do you? You said when you checked in that you felt useless, that you were afraid that your friends’ all leaving was causing you to hallucinate. Remember, you said that you watched broken wine bottles summon themselves back together.”

He shook his head. “Transmute. The pieces transmuted themselves back together. Summoning is different, that’s an evocation.”

Jean raised an eyebrow at him, and he grimaced sheepishly. “Sorry. Too much Dungeons and Dragons. But I told you, I think I just dreamed that.”

He was lying, but he hoped she would let it drop.

“Okay, even without magical hallucinations, you were very depressed when you came here last week.”

“I get it, okay?”

Her brows furrowed as he changed the subject. “Get what?”

“You’re a kid, and your whole life’s ahead of you, and you have these notions about what life is and what it should be like. But eventually you have to let it all go. That’s what I’m doing. It’s all part of growing up, selling the comic collection and all that.”

Jean watched him for a minute, and he ran the quarter over his knuckles without looking at it.

“I’d still like to recommend further treatment, Quentin.”

“Look, I’ve never threatened to hurt myself or anyone else. You can’t keep me here.” He hesitated, eyebrows drawn as he looked up at her. “Can you?”

She sighed. “No, but I’ll give you my card anyway in case you decide you want to consider continuing these sessions outside of Ellsworth Downs.”

He put the card she handed him into his pocket.

“So, you’re letting me go?” He just had to double-check.

Smiling slightly, Jean nodded. “Yes. Do you have someone coming to check you out?”

“Yeah, my best friend Julia is coming at four.” Glancing at the clock, he noted that he had just under an hour before she would get here.

“Go on, go collect your things and say goodbye to any of the other residents if you want. And Quentin? Don’t forget, it’s easy to change if you give it your attention. All you have to do is just believe you can be who you want to be.”

Mulling over those parting words, Quentin left and went to the room he’d been assigned, picking up the suitcase he had packed before his last session with Dr. Holloway. He headed to the recreational room to see who was there before he left.

John was lounging on one of the couches with his arm around a young Hispanic woman drawing in a sketchpad, but when he saw Quentin in the doorway he disentangled himself. The girl looked over and waved at Quentin as John said, “back in a minute, love,” and headed over to an unoccupied corner of the room, motioning for Quentin to join him.

Quentin walked over to the British man who he had become fast friends with in the few days he had been at Ellsworth Downs Mental Health Clinic. John had checked himself in, too, although he had been there for several months. He wouldn’t tell Quentin why, but had introduced himself as a ‘demonologist and petty dabbler in the dark arts’. Most people just rolled their eyes when he said that, but Quentin had gravitated towards the man with a sharp tongue and biting sarcasm. Besides, John hadn’t laughed at him when he had hesitantly admitted to the blonde man why he had come to the clinic.

Eliot had answered his phone one evening and then left suddenly, coming back with a young woman named Fen. Apparently El had grown up in this little rural town in Oregon, and Fen had been his best friend growing up. When Eliot had finally had enough of his homophobic family, he had run off to New York and never looked back. Margo had known, of course, she had been the one who had helped him adopt the upper-class persona he loved so much. Q had found out much later, but he only knew the bare outline of his boyfriend’s life before the city. He had never heard about any best friend until Fen showed up.

She had traveled to the city and called El from the train station to get instructions to their apartment building. She didn’t have a cell phone, but Eliot had sent her his number in a letter just in case she got tired of the backwater town of Filmore and wanted a fresh start. Fen was a cute little brunette, and she was almost exhaustingly cheerful. Margo had kept watching her like she was waiting for a sudden shift in personality, but none had come the whole time she and Eliot were explaining what was going on in their hometown.

Filmore was a relatively boring town, according to them, but there was a natural reserve just past the town proper that was ‘the most gorgeous place in the world.’ Margo had rolled her eyes as Fen said that, but Eliot was quick to defend her, informing them that Fillory was indeed a very special place. It was a massive tract of land with natural forests and waterfalls and creatures that had no fear of humans because no one was allowed to harm them with man-made weapons. Admittedly, an oddity in the west, but some natural magic of the place left the tourists that stumbled across it unwilling to disturb the peace. The town made most of its revenue from farming, and no one had been enterprising enough to want to build paths and tourist areas on the reserves if they had to go into debt to do so.

That was, until this group calling themselves the Order of the Librarians decided to set their sights on it. They apparently wanted to cut down the reserve and build a massive library there. Fen and Eliot were vague on why this Order wanted Fillory in particular, but the mayor of Filmore was considering their offer. Fen had heard about it from her friend Abigail that worked in the mayor’s office and hopped the first train to a major city that has an airport, to ask Eliot for his help in trying to convince the Mayor that he didn’t want to sell the nature reserve.

He had immediately packed to join her and begged Margo to come with them. Having a lawyer-to-be could be useful for stalling the sale, and she had agreed to go with them, although the eyes she had been making toward Fen when the other girl wasn’t looking may have had something to do with it. They had texted a summary of the goings-on to Alice and Julia, hoping the brainiac girls could dig up any dirt that could be useful, and received a promise that they would look into it and keep them updated on anything they found.

Eliot had asked Quentin to come with them, but Q had told them he couldn’t go. He had promised Josh that he would help at the Key and Bee Bakery for a charity event they were hosting that next weekend, and the bakery needed all hands on deck. So Eliot and Margo had gone on without him, and he had thrown himself into the chaos of the bakery. But after the event was over, though, Quentin didn’t have anything to distract himself from missing all his friends. He had gone over to El and Margo’s and stood in the kitchen looking at the empty apartment. A familiar feeling of despair had descended around him like a heavy cloud, and when the fog had lifted Q had found himself sitting on the floor surrounded by the broken shards of bottles that had lined the counters.

Quentin had closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down. He had heard a scraping and tinkling sound, and when he opened his eyes he had watched in amazement and disbelief as the shards of glass flew together and reformed into empty bottles. The wine and whiskey were still spilled all over the floor, but the shards of glass were back on the counter as if the bottles had only been drunk empty during an all-night binge.

His phone was in his hand in an instant, but he stared at it before dialing anyone. He couldn’t tell Eliot, or Julia, they would think he was mad! What would he tell them, anyway? No one would believe him, with the bottles all intact. Maybe he was going mad.

Quentin had spent the next few days twitchy and not sleeping, alternating between hoping it would happen again and being terrified that it would. He knew that he couldn’t deal with this on top of his friends all being away, he remembered his limits from his teenage years. He checked himself into the hospital the next day, citing uselessness and depression until Dr. Holloway got the full story out of him.

“Have you been released from this sorry place then, love? I was starting to like you, a little bit.” He smirked at Quentin, who smiled back as he pulled himself from his memories. John talked a lot of shit but he was straight-forward and no-nonsense, unlike most of the doctors and temporary residents.

“Yeah, I’m allowed to leave, Julia’s coming to pick me up at four.” Quentin had told John about his friends, how they were all away and he hadn’t told them about being in the hospital because he was ashamed of himself. John had told him to stop being a bloody twat and tell someone, so Q had called Julia the next time he had a chance on the phones.

“Well, aren’t you a lucky sod, pretty bird comin’ to get you out.”

“How do you know she’s pretty, you’ve never met her.”

“Friends with you, isn’t she? You’re a handsome bloke, probably a pretty girl before you transitioned, so she’s probably also a pretty bird. Besides, most people I’ve met are some kind’a pretty.”

Quentin stared at John. He hadn’t told Jean that he was trans, hadn’t told anyone here, and he’d been on hormones long enough that he knew he passed well enough. A tendril of thought squeezed past the panic simmering in his brain to inform him that John had also called him a ‘handsome bloke,’ and he blinked up at the brit as he came back to himself.

John had been prattling on as he stared out the window, and now looked over at Quentin with raised eyebrows as if he had asked a question. His expression quickly morphed into concern, and he put a calloused hand on Quentin’s shoulder.

“Alright there, mate? Did I say something stupid? Don’t listen to me, I do stupid in spades.”

“How did you know?” Quentin whispered, afraid to raise his voice in case people were listening. “That I’m ... That I’m not really a boy?”

John scowled. “O’course you’re really a boy, anyone that tells you different is a bloody wanker. Anyway, I’m just naturally observant. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with my indifference.”

Quentin nodded as John slung an arm around his shoulder, hugging him to his side and pressing a quick kiss to his forehead before pulling away in case the ward’s orderlies made a fuss about displays of affection.

“Go on now, get out of here.” He pulled Quentin towards the doors of the rec room, and Quentin waved goodbye to the others as he followed. “And don’t forget, those conversations we had about magic? Everything has a price, even if it doesn’t look like it. Magic is costly, and all those fairy tales? They aren’t fun little stories, they’re warnings.”

With those parting words and another quick hug, Quentin turned and headed to the lobby of the clinic. He hoped Jules would be there to help him get his head on straight, he had missed her while she was gone.


	15. Julia

Julia left Kady waiting in the car as she hurried into the hospital. It was almost four, and she didn’t want to be late to see her best friend for the first time in months. Quentin was waiting for her at the front desk of the psych ward wing, and she ran over to hug him. He hugged her back just as hard, and they only broke apart when the receptionist cleared her throat loudly.

“I’ve missed you, Q.”

He smiled. “I missed you too, Jules.”

They hurried and signed him out, and then started walking through the hospital.

“Are you -- feeling better?” Julia asked hesitantly, not really sure how to broach the subject.

“Yeah, I think so.” Quentin was quieter than usual, and Julia pulled him aside so they could look at each other. He was avoiding her eyes, which wasn’t unusual for him.

“Look, Q, I know what you told me on the phone. You said you broke a bunch of Eliot’s bottles and then they magically fixed themselves. Magic isn’t real, though, you know that?”

Q shrugged. “I know what it sounds like, okay? I didn’t want to tell you because I knew what you would say. But John told me to tell you, so I did.”

Julia blinked. “Who’s John?”

“A guy here at the hospital.” Quentin waved a hand in the direction they had come from. “He believed me, about the bottles. He told me that magic comes from pain.”

“And you think a guy at the nuthouse believing you means that magic is real?” Julia scoffed. “Of course he believed you, he’s probably crazy.”

“He’s not crazy, and neither am I!” Q glared at Julia, and she put her hands up in a calming motion.

“Look, I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

They’re silent for a minute, and then Quentin smiled softly at Julia.

“I missed you. How were things at Alice’s?”

Julia took the change in conversation as the peace offering it was. “Good, they were really good. I feel better, more in control. Plus, we’ve been looking into that Library. There’s this creepy CEO guy, Mr. Rowe? Supposedly he just finds rare and antique books, but people who tell him no have a habit of disappearing. And we still can’t figure out why they would want a nature reserve like Fillory, unless he just hates the environment. Or there’s something special about this Fillory place.”

“Nothing that Eliot or that girl Fen told us, at least. But maybe we can ask them later, assuming we’re going someplace with a phone.”

Julia realized that she had only told Quentin about staying at a friend’s place who had offered to let him stay there too, but nothing else. “Oh, yeah. They have a phone. I met this girl on the bus ride, we carpooled after the bus got stranded in Pennsylvania somewhere. Her friends have a place just out of the city, it’ll be nicer than staying with Josh, I promise.”

“Josh has Vic and Poppy over this week, anyway.”

“Perfect. Wait, both of them?”

Quentin shrugged. “It’s Josh. And you’ve met Poppy, right? She’ll try anything. Victoria I’m a little surprised at, but she and Josh have had their off-and-on open-relationship thing for a while now. But that’s not the point, the point is you met a girl? And you’ve been sleeping at her house?”

Julia shoved him as he smirked at her. “Shut up, Coldwater. She’s nice, you’ll get to meet her in the car. And I haven’t been sleeping with her, just staying at her friends’ apartment. You’ll like them, they’re a lot like Eliot and Margo.”

“I never said you’d been sleeping with her, you jumped to that conclusion all by yourself, Wicker. Must be because you like her.”

She shrugged. “Maybe, but I can’t do anything about it. She has a boyfriend.”

“Is he hot? You could three-way.”

“Oh my god, you’ve been spending way too much time with Margo. Let’s go.”


	16. Kady

Kady sat in the car, trying to ignore the building Julia had gone into. Hopefully Julia would be out soon with her friend, she really didn’t like this place. Surely their choice in shrinks has gotten better than the assholes that she’d had to deal with when she and Penny had been there.

She found herself tracing the half-heart necklace, and mentally smacked herself for being so damn obvious in the little bodega. ‘No, it’s for you,’ gods, she was lucky Julia had probably thought it was a joke or something. It was totally a joke. I mean, she had just met this girl two days ago! Even if she hadn’t seemed disgusted by the idea of Marina’s kids in a three-way relationship, that didn’t mean that she would want the same. Hell, that’s assuming Penny would even be interested. He knew about her and Pete and Marina having that kind of relationship once upon a time, but she had never asked him if he wanted to be in a non-monogamous relationship. She had kinda assumed the answer was no and hadn’t found anyone to make it worth having that particular conversation.

Julia, though…

As if summoned by Kady’s thoughts, the girl in question appeared hand-in-hand with a tall boy who must have been the afore-mentioned Quentin. He walked with his head down and slouched as if he was trying not to be noticed by anyone, hair falling over his eyes. Julia was talking, and he nodded to whatever she was saying as she led him over to the car.

Julia opened the back door and Quentin slid in, eyes flickering over to Kady as Julia got in the front passenger’s side.

“Quentin, this is Kady. Kady, Quentin.”

Quentin nodded at her and muttered hello, ducking his head after meeting her eyes very briefly.

“Nice to meet you.” Kady smiled at him, trying to project harmlessness around the obviously-skittish kid. Well, not kid, he was probably their age, but his mannerisms reminded her of some of Marina’s kids. It was probably just the situation, though, so Kady tried not to think too much about it. “Julia, if you want to sit in the back and catch up, you certainly can, I don’t mind chauffeuring on the drive back.”

Julia shot her a grateful look, she had probably picked up on his nervousness too. She slid out and made him scoot over so she could sit next to him, and Kady gladly pulled out of the parking lot of Ellsworth Downs.

She did try not to eavesdrop on their quiet conversation. Okay, not as much as she probably could have, sue her for being nosy. She could only hear snippets of what they said, names that she didn’t know and something about a library. One part of a sentence caught her ear though, Quentin said ‘not some crazy HP shit, it was real.’ That got her mind spinning, especially after a sneak in the rearview mirror showed a skeptical tight-lipped Julia.

Was Quentin talking about magic? He wouldn’t be the first person in a psych ward because of it, Kady definitely knew that. She made a note to have Marina check him with her spelled looking glass when they got back to the apartment and kept driving.

“Thank you for letting me stay at your place, Kady.” Quentin said a few minutes later, and Kady looked over her shoulder at him.

“You’re welcome! Did Julia tell you about the party we’ve been invited to? My boyfriend is stuck going to a work holiday party, and we’re going to go and keep him company. I told Julia she could come, and we extended the offer to you if you want. You’re welcome to stay and rest at the apartment, either of you, if you’d rather do that, we have Netflix and shit. Whatever you want, really, no pressure, I promise.”

Quentin looked kind of overwhelmed at all the options, but nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

The rest of the drive was pretty quiet, and Kady looked back once to find Quentin asleep on Julia’s shoulder. She kinda wished she could take a picture, it was cute.


	17. Julia

Julia sat and stared out the window, careful to not move too much in case it woke the sleeping Q. She worried about him. His obsession with magic was unhealthy, even she could see that. Especially since it was her fault in the first place.

She had been the one to get Quentin into magic and fantasy books. She had loved magic shows, and they had spent many hours trying to learn how to do the tricks. He had always loved reading sci-fi, but she had been the one to introduce him to Harry Potter after her mom had told her the books were ‘too adult’ for an eight-year-old. After that they had both poured over as many fantasy books as they could, imagining that they were Drizzt Do’urden or Eragon or Bilbo Baggins going on fantastic adventures.

Eventually Julia had started getting into other genres, though, at the insistence of her parents. They had thought it was too childish and made her start looking at books that could be useful for a future career instead. They had been right, she had found books with real-world knowledge fascinating, but her attempts to bring Quentin with her out of the realm of fantasy had all failed. He was obsessed, reading anything he could get his hands on and playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group after school instead of spending time with her.

She had tried to keep up with him, she had told herself. And they were still best friends, they just had different interests. It was all fine until it wasn’t. Until Quentin had called her from a psych ward and told her he had accidentally done magic.

Magic wasn’t real, of course. She knew that. It was how to convince him that was the problem.

They arrived at Pete and Marina’s apartment, though, before Julia had come up with a solution. She put it out of her mind for now as she gently shook Q awake as Kady pulled into the parking garage. They walked to the apartment and knocked once before opening the door.

“Welcome to our house. Well, not mine, technically.” Kady held the door open for Julia and Quentin, and Julia pulled Q inside. Marina and Pete were in the kitchen, but paused their conversation as they entered and came over to meet Q.

“Hello there, I’m Pete and this fiery vixen behind me is Marina.” He dodged Marina’s swat with practiced ease, holding out a hand for Q to shake. Kady laughed as she slid into the kitchen, asking what was for dinner.

“Pizza, Penny’s picking it up. We ordered one with just cheese, one with pepperoni and bacon, and one veggie. You eat pizza, right Quentin?” Marina turned to him, and he nodded.

“Of course, I’m only human.”

Kady came back with glasses of water that she passed around as Julia and Q were ushered into the living room by the others, and sat down in one of the armchairs. “You guys know you can’t just live off takeaway forever, right?”

“Bullshit.” They said it in unison, and Julia snorted.

“Don’t pay attention to them, they’re full of shit. Pete actually can cook quite well, Penny and I taught him everything we know, but asking Marina to do anything without a very specific recipe is asking for trouble.”

Julia watched as Marina pouted at Kady, crossing her arms defiantly. “I can cook! It’s just easier with instructions.”

“Right, just in case you forget to strain the water before putting the cheese in the macaroni and cheese.” Pete smirked as he relayed the story to her and Quentin, and Julia found herself grinning.

“That was one time, assholes. Stop trying to ruin my reputation with people we’ve just met.”

“We would never do that, would we, Pete?” Pete shook his head at Kady’s question but winked at them when Marina wasn’t looking. “How long until the pizza gets here?”

The front door opened and Penny stepped through, bringing three boxes with him and shutting the door with his foot.

“Perfect timing, Penny.” Marina jumped up and took the boxes, carrying them into the living room and setting them on the coffee table. She opened the boxes and took a slice of cheese as she settled back in her seat. “Dig in, bitches.”

“Plates, Marina, Jesus.” She heard Penny mutter, and he came in quickly with six plates and a roll of paper towels.

“God, you’re such a drag sometimes, Adiyodi.” Marina took a plate with a very obvious eye-roll, and Julia smirked as she took the plate he handed her.

“Thank you.” Quentin said as he took his own plate.

“You’re welcome. See, someone in this place has fucking manners. I’m Penny, and you are?”

“Q-Quentin, Quentin Coldwater.”

“Sup.” Penny finished handing out the plates and took the other armchair next to Kady, reaching over to grab a slice of the veggie. Julia took that as her cue to slid her plate over to where Pete was grabbing a slice of pepperoni and bacon, nodding her thanks when he put a second slice on her own plate. Q took a slice of the cheese pizza as Kady held the box towards him after getting her own piece.

Everyone was quiet for a while, contentedly munching on the pizzas as Friends played softly in the background on the tv. Most of the pizzas were gone by the time Pete spoke again, breaking the silence. “Quentin, did the girls tell you about the party?”

“Yeah, but I’m kinda tired, so if it’s okay I think I’m going to stay here.” Julia wasn’t surprised by that, considering how quickly he had fallen asleep in the car.

“Of course. I think I’m going to skip, too, if you don’t mind the company. The girls will have to go without us. Think your coworkers will survive the shock of you showing up with three smokin’ hot girls, Pen? Or will they think you have a harem?” Pete’s eyebrow wiggle didn’t go unnoticed if Penny’s double-bird gesture was anything to go by.

“They don’t have to come if they don’t want to, if Julia wants to stay with her friend.”

Julia looked over at Q and opened her mouth to ask if he wanted her to stay, but was interrupted by Marina as she stood up.

“Nope, all the girls are going, it’s already been decided. Besides, I want someone to talk to when you drag Kady off to rub elbows with the higher-ups.”

Quentin shook his head at her silent question. “Go ahead, I’ll be fine. Have fun, okay Jules?”

She shrugged, “As long as you don’t mind.”

Marina came around the couch and pulled Kady to her feet, and tugged at Julia’s arm until she stood up too. “Come on, we need to go get ready. Play nice, boys.”

Julia let herself be shuttled up the stairs and pulled into Marina’s room to find something to wear for the evening. Q would be fine with Pete for the evening.


	18. Kady

Kady waited until Julia had followed Marina up the stairs before turning to Penny. “Hey, can I talk to you real quick?” She didn’t wait for an answer before dragging him through the dining room and outside to the balcony.

“What?” Penny looked confused as she turned to him, and she rolled her eyes.

“What do you think? ‘Julia can stay too,’ that was rude. Stop being such as asshole, okay?” He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head at her words, blowing out his breath in a huff.

“I can’t believe you want to do this. You want to bring an outsider -- who’s a Muggle by the way, in case you forgot! -- to a party full of hedges who collect books about magic? The fuck, Kady? I know she’s pretty, but you must be out of your damn mind!”

A part of Kady’s brain registered that Penny thought Julia was pretty, but she shook her head to clear it. “Look, we can pass it off as a group of eccentric book collectors. Anything that she might overhear can be explained as historical research or something. No one thinks that people who talk about magic in public are actually talking about real magic, remember? Hiding in plain sight?”

Penny shrugged. “I guess. Still think this is a stupid idea. We’re just asking for trouble. We just met these people, we don’t know anything about them.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter if they find out about magic anyway, since we don’t know them. Besides, I think Quentin might know something already, he was telling Julia something about ‘real Harry Potter shit’ in the car. It might be worth looking into if he’s a new hedge.”

“Whatever. He’s a little weird.”

“Yeah, well, you’re a little weird. Just play nice, okay?”

He shrugged again as Pete came over and knocked on the balcony door. Kady motioned for him to open the door, and he stuck his head out.

“If you’re done freezing your asses off, Marina is yelling for you, Kitty-cat.”

She nodded and pushed Penny towards the door. “Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Leaving Penny to his own getting-ready routine, Kady headed to Marina’s room. The door to her and Pete’s shared and massive walk-in closet was open in her bedroom, and Kady could hear Marina talking out options.

“This could look good on you, hmm? Too much skin? How about this one?”

Julia laughed. “Oh hell no.”

Kady walked in and saw the dress that Marina had been holding up. It was a long-slitted purple number that had beading along the edges, one shoulder strap, and a very plunging neckline. Kady had worn it at the club, and Marina had taken a shine to it.

“We’re not trying to get them to stare at us all evening, ‘Rina. It’s a holiday party, not a club event.”

Marina rolled her eyes at her. “Kitty, they’ll be staring anyway. I mean, look at us. We’re the hottest girls most of those people have probably ever seen.” She sighed dramatically. “What are you going to wear then?”

Kady hummed as she looked around the closet. Shelves with accessories and shoes lined one wall of the space, and the other three walls had top-and-middle rods holding hundreds of hangers with shirts, pants, skirts, shorts, and other less-definable clothes. The two rollable racks in the middle of the floor hold all the dresses, suits, costumes, and anything that they didn’t want wrinkled. Penny called it the Tardis room, on account of the magic that they used to make it hold everything that maybe stretched the inside dimensions, just a little bit.

She ran her hands through the dress racks until she got to one of her favorites. A deep red color with a high neckline, low back, sleeves made of lace and matching to-the-knees lace hem, it hugged her curves perfectly. She pulled it out and showed it to the others.

“Ah, yes, because you won’t get stared at in that.” Marina rolled her eyes, and Kady stuck her tongue out at her because that seemed like the most mature response.

“I think it’ll look great.” Julia piped up, and shrugged. “Who cares what they think? We’re not wearing dresses for his coworkers, we’re wearing them for us. I say wear whatever you want.”

Marina grinned. “Preach! I like your new friend, Kady. Now, what about this one for her?” She was holding up a simple emerald green dress with thin straps, a v-neckline, and a flared skirt that was made for twirling. It would look good on her, Kady thought.

“I like it. What do you think, Julia?”

Julia was looking at it contemplatively and ran a hand down the fabric. “It’s nice. I’ll try it, at least. What are you going to wear, Marina?”

She grinned and pulled out a silver-blue halter dress that had beading all over the top and a double-layer asymmetrical skirt that went to her mid-thigh. It had proven to be a very sexy party dress already, and Kady nodded in appreciation.

“Yes, you’ll look amazing in that.”

They separated to put on their respective dresses, Marina and Kady slipping through the closet doors into Marina’s and Pete’s rooms and leaving Julia to change in the closet. They did look amazing, as they all crowded in the bathroom to do their makeup and hair with some assistance from Pete after he left Quentin reading on the couch.

Soon the last touches of lipstick and eyeliner were applied and heels and a purse found for Julia, and they headed downstairs. Penny had changed into a slightly-nicer suit that Pete had made him get tailored last year while they did their makeup and was waiting in the kitchen with a glass of something amber that Marina immediately stole a swig of. Quentin was curled up in one of the armchairs with a book just like Pete had said, and Julia grinned.

“Hey bookworm, think we look ready for a party?”

He looked up and took them in, nodding appreciatively as he stood up to meet them at the door. “You all look great. Have fun at the party.”

Marina patted him on the cheek. “Thanks, sugar. Try not to have too much fun with Pete, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Kady snorted. “That leaves, what, nothing?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Pete smirked at Quentin as he came down and leaned on the back of the couch. “Don’t listen to her, she’s just being, well, Marina.”

Marina flicked him off, and then Penny broke in as he opened the door. “Right, don’t be a slut, Pete, leave the nerd alone. Come on, let’s get this damn thing over with.”

Julia hugged Quentin quickly before following Penny and Marina, and Kady shut the door behind them as they headed out into the chilly December evening.


	19. Julia

The large room of the hotel where the party was being held was decorated with strings of lights and a tree in one corner, although Julia suspected the decorations were the hotel’s since the rest of the hotel was decorated similarly for the holidays. There were several tables of finger foods and drinks along one side, next to a bar that had a dozen seats for people waiting for alcoholic beverages instead of what was presumably water and punch.

“I have to go talk to my boss, I’ll be back.” Penny said, and then headed towards a cluster of men standing on the far side of the room. There were more men than women, although the women were more noticeable in their colorful dresses instead of the dark suits all the men were wearing. Everyone was standing in clumps talking quietly, and there was soft music playing that no one was dancing to.

The three of them moved around the room, with Kady in the lead since she knew at least some of the people here. She introduced Julia and Marina to several of the groups of people, and there are polite handshakes all around. Some of the younger librarians seem excited to have more young people in the mix, and compliments flow briefly about dresses and decorations before they go back to their previous conversations and Kady moved them on to another group.

Several times, the conversations die down quickly as they approach as if the librarians were talking about something super secret that they didn’t want anyone to overhear. Julia wondered what a bunch of book collectors could be scheming about, but it wasn’t any of her business so she shrugged it off after a while.

“Well, this is a lively bunch, I’m surprised they can contain their excitement.” Marina drawled sarcastically, and Julia was inclined to agree. “I’m gonna go get us some drinks, okay? Behave yourselves, girls.”

Julia wasn’t even surprised that she headed for the bar instead of the tables, at least they were in agreement that more alcohol needed to be spread around before this party dropped dead of sheer boredom.

“I can’t imagine Penny working with these stuffy-looking librarians, he’s way too …” Colorful? Abrasive? She trailed off as she tried to think of a good way to explain how different he seemed from the people chatting quietly in the room.

“Loud?” Kady smirked. “They’re not all this boring, some of the younger ones like Sylvia and Phyllis are quite nice when you get them away from the others. Having the older generation around can put a damper on any party when all they want to talk about are rare editions of books.”

“And, what does Penny do for them?”

Kady shrugged. “They do a lot of acquisitions, and Penny has some talent in that area. He doesn’t really want to be working for them, but the pay is good.”

“Huh.” Talent in acquisitions? That made it sound like he was a thief. Although Julia had to admit that if he was a thief, that would make more sense than being a librarian.

“Do you want to dance?”

“No one else is dancing.” Julia looked around the room before looking back at Kady, who grinned at her.

“They will be if I start. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“To this music? I doubt that.”

Kady paused and looked around the room for something. She must have found it because she looked back at Julia with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“Let’s go change the music then!” She walked towards one corner of the room, where Julia could now see a computer sitting against one of the speakers. Julia rolled her eyes as she followed. They could get in so much trouble for this. But at least it would be fun.


	20. Penny

Penny moved through the crowds after leaving the girls, looking for Everett. He found the older man talking with Cyrus some of the other higher-ups, and headed in that direction. He could hear snippets of their conversation as he approached, about a town in the west and an important acquisition deadline, and something about an epicenter. Everett caught sight of him, though, and broke off the conversation quickly.

“Penny. How are you? I see you brought some lovely ladies with you this evening, the more the merrier.”

“Yeah, sure.” Penny looked back to watch Kady, Marina, and Julia chatting with Eve for a minute before Everett cleared his throat.

“How are you coming with that list?”

Penny scowled as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “It keeps growing as I collect your precious books. That wasn’t the deal we made.”

“No, the deal we made was that you work for me and I don’t make your life hell for stealing from me in the first place. If I recall, there’s a certain angry hedge-witch who would be happy to know exactly how to find your precious Kady and her friends, even with the protections that you have in place. They’ll need to be renewed soon, won’t they?”

Eight months ago Penny had walked into a normal-looking bookshop run by a hedge and casually picked up the spellbook that Marina had needed for a shielding spell. He had tried to Travel away with it, but something had stuck him in place. The owner, a tall blond woman named Zelda, had called someone on her phone before coming over to pluck the book out of Penny’s grasp.

“Stealing from the libraries is unacceptable, although not many people try to teleport. Are you a Traveler?”

“This isn’t a library, lady, and it’s none of your fucking business.” He had growled at her as he struggled to counter her spell with one of his own.

“I’m sure you made it my business when you tried to take a very valuable book that most people aren’t even supposed to know is there. It was hidden with several layers of enchantments.”

“What can I say, I had some help.”

“That is unsurprising. Stop trying to get free, that will hold you in place until the man who set it comes to release you. He might try to recruit you if you prove yourself useful to him.”

“I don’t need to work for a paranoid douchebag who trapped me.”

“It’s only paranoia if no one is out to get you, or so they say.” Penny had whipped his head around at the new voice and saw a man who turned out to be Everett standing there, looking smug.

“Let me go, asshole!”

The man had tisked and shook his head. “No, I think not. I think you could be useful to me. Let’s make a deal, shall we?”

“Yeah, I’ll make you a deal. You let me go, I don’t kick your ass, old man.”

“How about, I let you go and even loan you that book you tried to steal, and you come to work for me. And if you don’t come work for me, I’ll figure out what you wanted a very powerful book on shielding for and who you’re trying to hide from, and I’ll tell them exactly where to find you. Your body may be stuck here, Traveler, but I can still go into your memories. It’d be quite easy, in fact.”

“Bullshit.” Penny knew he had strong wards, learning to shield his mind had been the first thing Marina and Pete had taught him when he moved in with Kady. He had practiced until there was no hint of other people’s voices in his head, even in his sleep.

“Let’s see.” The old man reached out and touched Penny’s shoulder, and suddenly there was intense pain in his head. Penny had screamed, but someone cast a silencing spell and his voice was choked off.

“Well, your girl Kady is very pretty. It’d be a shame if she and her friends ran into any more trouble from, Irene, is it?”

Penny had shouted curses at him, but the silencing spell was still in effect.

“Come work for me, and I won’t tell Irene where she can find the hedges that stole from her before leaving her employment. I’ll give you a list of things to acquire for me, and after you’re done with that your contract will be up.”

His shoulders sagged, and Zelda twitched her fingers to release the spell.

“Fine. What do you want me to get?”

Penny glared at Everett, pulled back from the memory by a cough from the other man.

“That’s none of your fucking business. You said the debt could be paid if I collected everything on that list, but the list never ends.”

“Well, you should pay more attention to the exact details of a deal. Besides, I like having a Traveler working for me, it would have taken me months to get in some of those houses. Excuse me, I need to go speak with Zelda. Enjoy the party, Penny.”

Penny stared at his back as Everett walked off to talk to the blonde woman, and turned abruptly towards the bar. He needed a drink or three.


	21. Kady

Kady sat down and pulled the computer towards her, and could feel Julia crouching down behind her a second later. Not even password-protected, the computer was unlocked and playing an actual cd of classical music.

“Wow. Old school, I can almost appreciate that.”

Julia laughed. “I’m surprised it’s on a laptop and not a stereo or something.”

“True. Be grateful, at least now we can change it.” She pulled up the web browser and logged into 8tracks, humming as she scrolled through playlists.

“How do you feel about DJ music?” She turned her head to look at Julia, suddenly realizing how close they were.

Julia shrugged. “I’m not into the club scene enough to have an opinion, but anything has to be better than this.” She waved her hand toward the speaker, which was currently playing through Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

“Excellent. There’s this DJ, Riley Blue, she’s amazing.” Kady clicked on the playlist and paused the cd, and suddenly there was a pulsing beat coming from the speaker. She put the computer back down and pulled Julia through the shocked crowd of librarians who had turned to look at them. She winked at Eve, who was grinning and swaying to the music already, and began to dance as she pushed past some of the older librarians.

Space opened up on the floor and Kady stopped, pulling Julia in closer by their linked hands and rolling her whole body to the techno beat. Julia laughed and danced with her, swaying from side to side.

Eve came up to join them, grabbing Phyllis and bringing her along as she made her way across the floor.

“You like Riley Blue?” Kady wasn’t surprised that Eve knew the DJ’s music, she had always seemed like the good sort.

“She’s one of the best, of course!” Kady grinned at her as she saw Marina making her way over.

“Oh thank god, that music was such a drag. This is much better.” Marina handed Kady and Julia their drinks and slid behind Julia to dance with Phyllis and Eve.

Soon there were even more people dancing, although most of the older librarians had elected to return to their boring conversations and try to ignore the dancing millennials. Kady danced with Marina, with Eve, even with Gavin when he tried to copy their moves with his particular brand of uncoordinated-white-boy dancing. She watched Julia dance with Marina, the latter with her hands on Julia’s hips showing her how to move with the music as she had once taught Kady. Eve was trying to get Phyllis to dance, and Kady moved over to help show her what to do and how to be more graceful without stepping on Eve’s feet. She laughed and Eve and Kady danced together with Phyllis between them until she finally got the rhythm down, and Kady went back to Julia.

She danced much better after Marina’s instruction and grinned sheepishly at Kady.

“I didn’t get out to dance much, I was always too busy studying.”

Kady smiled. “Well, you pick up moves fast. Marina is good at that kind of teaching.”

“She is. I’m gonna go find a restroom, be right back.”

Kady watched her leave until a nudge at her shoulder made her look over at a smirking Marina. “Don’t be too obvious, Kitty.”

“Shut up.” Marina laughed, and Kady blushed. “Dance with me.”

Marina did, and they put on a show for the rest of the group until everyone was moving together to the rhythm of the music.


	22. Pete

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure this is my longest chapter. Pete had a lot to say.
> 
> My knowledge of cocktail recipes, strip clubs/strippers, and drag queens/shows is on par with my knowledge on rehab, sorry for any hand-wavy descriptions, grain of salt, you know the drill.

Pete sprawled out on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table like Marina hated as he watched the other boy. Quentin was back in one of the armchairs, shifting and fidgeting to try and get comfortable. It was very distinctive fidgeting, and Pete could only watch for a few minutes before he got up to get a sweatshirt from the little closet by the front door. He tossed it over to Quentin, who blinked up at him in confusion as the sweatshirt landed over his book.

“I can’t watch anymore, go change out of your binder and put that on.”

Quentin’s eyes got huge, he opened his mouth to say something and Pete put his hands up placatingly. “Look, it’s fine, I’m not gonna tell anyone, and you pass just fine. You’re just not the first person I’ve met who binds. The fidgeting gave you away, shifting and rolling your shoulders to take the pressure off your ribs. You’ve probably been wearing it for too long anyway, now go change, yeah?”

The other boy snapped his open mouth shut and picked up the sweatshirt, a dull blue hoodie with the name of a bar that he and Marina frequented. Pete gestured to the bathroom, and Quentin rolled his eyes as he got up, muttering something under his breath as he walked past that sounded like ‘second time today.’ 

Pete scrolled through Netflix as he waited for Quentin to finish, and lifted his voice to be heard. “Have you seen The Umbrella Academy?”

“Yeah.” The muffled reply came right before the creak of the door opening as Quentin came back to the couch and stuffed his binder in the messenger bag he had set down when he had arrived. “I’ve seen it, El and Margo showed it to us.”

“Good, any objections to putting it on? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it.” Pete pressed play at a headshake from Quentin as he curled up on the other side of the couch, and the opening music began to play.

They lasted ten minutes in silence before Quentin cleared his throat. “So, um, are you—”

“Handsome?” Pete smirked over at him. “Yes, I am, thanks for noticing.”

Quentin rolled his eyes. “I mean, not untrue, but I have a boyfriend.”

“So does Kady, but that’s not stopping her from looking heart-eyes at your Julia.”

“Oh my god, you saw it too? Julia was blushing when she told me about her.”

“Yeah, and Marina said Penny thinks Julia’s cute. He’s a little skittish about that kind of thing, but we’ll give them some time to get to know each other. They both have strong levels of sass and sarcasm, I could see them as the flirting-with-insults type.”

“Yeah, I could believe that.” Quentin shook his head. “So, you’re …”

Pete took pity on him. “Pan, and non-binary. He/him pronouns, unless I’m in drag.”

Quentin coughed. “You do drag?”

“With these cheekbones? Yeah. My stage name is Lovelady. I can’t decide if I should kiss or kill Marina for that, it’s kinda grown on me.”

“Does — does Marina do drag too?”

Pete laughed. “No, although she totally could be a king. She’s just the one that got me into the scene at the strip club we used to work at.”

“I’m sorry, a strip club?” Quentin shifted so that his back was against the arm of the couch and he was facing Pete. “Start from the beginning, please, I need this story in lots of detail.”

He grinned and got up from the couch. “Alright, but we need drinks first. Pick your poison.” He walked over to the bar and set about making a Blonde Manhattan for himself. Quentin had followed him over and was watching him measure and pour the ingredients into the strainer and stirring before pouring them into the glass.

“You have one hell of a setup. I don’t even know what half this stuff is. El would know, he usually makes the fancy drinks and I just drink them.”

Pete smirked and raised the glass. “Well, this is a Blonde Manhattan. 2 ounces of moonshine, 1 ounce of sweet vermouth, half an ounce of orange liquor, and some orange bitters. Stirred, then strained. Here, try it.”

He handed the glass to Quentin, who took a sip and only grimaced a little. “I like it, although it could be sweeter.”

Pete thought for a second. “Ever had an Old Fashioned?”

Quentin shook his head but nodded when Pete asked him if he liked bourbon.

He pulled out the bourbon and other ingredients, talking through the steps as he put them into the shaker. A quarter ounce of simple syrup, two ounces of bourbon, a few dashes of bitters and orange bitters, stir, absolutely no shaking, strain into glass.

Quentin took a sip and nodded approvingly, and they headed back to the couch.

“Alright. Story time. I met Marina and Kady at this strip club...”

Pete remembered his first night at the club. Barely nineteen and fresh from a family and relationship that had left him with no money to his name, he had learned of Free Trader Beowulf from an acquaintance who had informed him that he was ‘pretty enough to make a killing there.’ He had gone to check it out and discovered the atmosphere to his liking. Floating glasses skimmed across the bar and no one paid them any mind. The clientele was a mix of genders, all watching the stage avidly as several dancers performed risque moves to sensual music. Bills and coin gently scattering the stage spoke of a decent revenue combined with the pints and glasses being knocked back by those watching the show.

He applied the next day to work as one of the bouncers. His metal manipulation came in handy when the ‘test of his skills’ involved being jumped by one of the employers, who ended up flying in the air by her belt buckle. Needless to say, he got the job.

Meeting Marina had been an explosive incident, to say the least. Pete had been (harmlessly!) flirting with one of the dancers, a very flexible young Latina named Mimi, when suddenly a strong hand had pulled him away. He had stumbled as he was led into a corner by a scrawny-looking redhead in killer stilettos who had turned and glared at him, arms crossed over her chest.

“Don’t even think of trying anything with one of my dancers. I know your type.”

“What type, devilishly handsome? Effortlessly charming?” Pete had tried for a disarming grin, but she just raised an eyebrow.

“If you hurt any of them, I’ll burn you to the ground.” She held her hand and snapped, flames suddenly dancing along her fingers to show she meant business.

“Cool trick. Or, hot trick, I suppose. But I have a trick of my own, love.” He had grabbed onto the metal bracelet she was wearing and forced her arm away until the flames died down, then released her. “I’m Pete.”

“Marina, although my stage name is Vicious Circe. Anonymity and all that.” Marina had looked him up and down, tilting her head up and staring at his face. It had been unnerving, being so thoroughly assessed. “You have gorgeous cheekbones, ever think about performing?”

Pete remembered scoffing at that, but had somehow ended up on the stage a few months later when one of the newer performers called in sick. Marina had walked up and pulled him away from his post without even asking, dragging him into the back where costumes and makeup covered every surface. Ten minutes later had found him wrapped in a shirt made of more glitter than fishnet, and tight pants that left little to the imagination.

His protests that he didn’t know any of the moves fell on deaf ears as Marina called his bluff, knowing full well that he had watched her teach the new kids the routine the week before, even occasionally correcting them when she didn’t notice something that they had done wrong.

“You’ll be fine, it’s a light crowd anyway. Besides, it’s so bright out on the stage that you can’t see anyone but the other dancers. Just for one set, okay? I’ll owe you a drink.” She was putting eyeliner on him before he even noticed that she had the makeup kit next to her, and he gave up. He had known the moves, and he didn’t want the new kids to have to improvise because they were missing a person. A bit of gold dust and glitter and he was ready for the performance.

It went off without a hitch, and he had even found himself enjoying it. He had told Marina the next night that he wouldn’t mind if she needed his help again, and she had smirked at him like she had known all along that he would like it.

Eventually, she convinced him to do the Drag Night that they had once a month. Pete maintains that he had been drunk when she asked him, but he was comfortable enough in his gender identity that putting on a miniskirt instead of the tight pants wasn’t an issue. The shoes, though, they were absolute hell that first night. Even the makeup took longer, with one of the other queens, a Latinx named Angel, showing him how to do things like brush his eyebrows back and turn them invisible so that more exaggerated features could be applied on top of them. His wig had been a curly blonde number if he remembered correctly, it had made his scalp itch for hours until he invested in better quality ones.

The name Lovelady had started as a joke. He had said something along the lines of “I could make sweet lady love to you like this” to Marina as he stumbled in those heels, and she had sniped back “Keep dreaming, Love Lady.” And the next thing he knew, he was being announced as Lovelady and strutting to catcalls and cheers from the crowd. He had given Marina the cold shoulder treatment for a week.

Kady had arrived at FTB a year or so after Pete worked there. She was a spitfire who almost punched him in the jaw the first time he flirted with her. Marina liked her instantly after that and initiated her into their duo with ease. An amazing singer, she already knew some dancing from watching her mom when she was younger. Her stage name was Asmodeus; she said it had been her mother’s name when she danced, something about the club in Chicago having an Angels and Devils theme.

“We looked out for each other, even after the job didn’t work out.” Pete told Quentin the whole story, although he omitted the parts about magic.

“What happened?” Quentin had listened attentively, sipping his drink and trying to be subtle as he yawned.

“Kady got some bad news, and she was going through a rough time. So we left to help her, and found an apartment we could afford with a little help from our previous employer.” And a little magic, but Quentin didn’t need to know about that bit.

“Your old boss helped you rent an apartment?”

Pete smirked. “Well, not exactly. We may have taken some of our earnings that Irene kept under lock and key. In her private safe.”

Quentin whistled softly. “I bet she was pissed.”

“Yeah. But there’s no actual proof it was us, so she can’t do anything about it.”

Pete smirked as Quentin yawned again, hiding it behind his hand in a totally obvious motion. “Why don’t you go on up to bed?”

He shook his head. “I wanna stay up until they get back.”

Pete reached over to grab the blanket that was stored under the coffee table. “Here, then, at least be more comfortable.”

“Don’t you want it?”

He shrugged. “I’m okay.”

Quentin squinted at him, and then scooted over until he was sitting next to him. The blanket spread out across both of them, Pete nodded when Quentin raised an eyebrow asking if that was better.

They settled into a companionable silence as they returned to watching the show in silence, and Quentin’s eyes slowly drifted shut as his head fell onto Pete’s shoulder. Pete shifted his arm to wrap it around the other boy, who settled more comfortably against him as he pulled the blanket tighter around them.


	23. Julia

Julia was coming back from the bathroom when she caught sight of a man who was somehow familiar. It took her a second to place him, but then she remembered the research she and Alice had done about that Order of Librarians Eliot had told them about. This man was the CEO, Everett Rowe.

Suddenly some of the pieces clicked into place. Penny worked for librarians and maybe-stole books for them. The librarians were in the acquisitions business. They wanted to build a big-ass library for all their collections of books, somewhere out of the way.

She still didn’t know why they wanted to destroy a nature reserve. But the whole thing left a sour taste in her mouth. Julia headed to the bar, needing a drink before she went and did something rash. She remembered the stories she and Alice had read about the unexplained accidents that befell anyone who said no to Mr. Rowe. They might not be able to save the reserve after all.

Except when she got to the bar, she found Penny standing there downing a shot of something. She ordered a whiskey neat and tried to ignore him as she drank.

“I assume it was Kady that changed the music. Blue is her favorite.”

Julia nodded curtly, side-eyeing him. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“What did I do to you, Wicker?”

“Nothing.” The biting remark sounded false even to her, and he snorted.

“Sure. Try that again.”

“You work for Everett Rowe.”

His arm stilled as he was reaching for another drink. “Wait, what? How do you know Everett?”

“I don’t.” He raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. “My friends are trying to save this nature reserve that Mr. Rowe is trying to buy. He wants to tear it down to build a fucking library or something.”

Penny tilted his head. “That doesn’t make sense. There are plenty of places he could … wait, where is this reserve? Somewhere in the west?”

Julia nodded. “Yeah, a place called Filmore, in Oregon, although it’s the Fillory Nature Reserve.”

“I think I heard them talking about that. Something about it being an epicenter, although I don’t know why.”

She thought back through her research. “Nothing that I came across said anything about a geological epicenter.”

“Wait.” Julia watched as Penny pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, a list of some sort. He scanned the titles, muttering to himself. “Harnessing ambient magic; energy conversion of natural springs; spellwork in siphoning… Oh shit. That Fillory place must be an epicenter of ambient magic. If Everett comes up with some way to control the levels of ambient in the ley lines, he could drain them just for his project. You said he wants to build a library?”

Julia stared at him. She hadn’t understood anything he had just said. “The fuck are you talking about?”

Penny grimaced. “Nevermind that for a second. You said he wants to build a library, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what Fen said.”

“Why does it need to be there? Unless he’s trying to build something on a massive scale, and he needs more ambient magic than there is flowing normally… A continually-expanding library, maybe. Something that would break the normal laws of physics unless it was sitting right on top of a source. There could be a way around that, though. Maybe a pocket dimension of some sort?”

“You’re still not making any sense.” She was struggling to keep up, but he was talking about magic as if it were an energy source. Magic didn’t exist.

“Kady said you were an architect.”

Julia nodded. “Yeah, studying to be at least.”

Penny tilted his head to the side, looking at her carefully. “Would you be interested in designing a library if it would help your friends save that nature reserve?”

She squinted at him. “I mean, sure, but I’m not going to design a library for that asshole if he’s just going to tear down the reserve anyway.”

He shook his head. “No, I think I have a way around that. I need to do some research though. Kady, Marina, we need to go.”

He said that last part under his breath and Julia raised an eyebrow. “You think they heard that? They’re all the way over by the dance floor.”

Penny smirked at her. “Nah, they’re coming.”

She glanced towards the crowd and saw Marina and Kady breaking free to head towards them, and whipped her head around to stare at him. “What. The. Fuck?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He turned to the other girls as they approached. “Short version, Everett is trying to destroy an epicenter of magic to build a fucking library, and we might be able to stop it. I have an idea. Well, half an idea.”

Marina raised an eyebrow and laced hands with Kady. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

Penny glanced at Kady, and then looked pointedly at Julia. “We’ll need her help, I think. I don’t see a way around it.”

Kady shrugged. “If I’m right about Quentin, she’ll find out eventually. But what about the anti-Traveling wards?”

Penny swore, but Marina held up her free hand. “I can break those if you want.”

He hesitated and then nodded. “Do it.”

Julia watched Marina pull her hand free from Kady’s and mutter something under her breath as she flexed her fingers in strange patterns. She shook her head after a minute and opened her mouth to ask Kady what she meant about Quentin, but Marina broke in. “It’s done, but we need to hurry.”

Penny grabbed her hand and Kady’s, and suddenly there was an unpleasant pulling sensation. Julia shut her eyes tight and felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. The floor beneath her fell away, and was replaced a second later by … carpet?

She forced her eyes open and saw Pete and Quentin curled up sleeping on the couch in front of them, suddenly back at the apartment.

“What the FUCK?”


	24. Marina

Marina winced at Julia’s shout and put a hand over her mouth quickly. “Quiet, Wicker, do you want to wake up the whole neighborhood?”

The boys on the couch had already woken up, and Quentin was staring up at them. “What’s going on?”

Julia raised her eyebrows at Marina, and she dropped her hand as she dug into her purse, pulling out her spelled looking glass. She held it up to her eye, first at Julia and then at Quentin. Julia had a dull glimmer of light threading through her body, the kind that spoke of the potential for magic but not knowing about it yet. Quentin, on the other hand, was covered in a bright light that pulsed with jagged edges the way that they had come to learn meant he had come into his magic but hadn’t been trained or even formally aware of it.

“Well, now. At least we aren’t breaking the statute of secrecy.” She looked between Kady, Penny, and Pete. “They both have the potential, and Quentin here already seems to have triggered his somehow.”

“The potential for what?” Julia asked.

“Magic, of course.” She grabs the other girl and deposits her on the couch next to Quentin, and sits across from them. “Okay, here’s the deal. Magic is real. A percentage of people have the potential for it, but plenty of people never learn to use that potential. It tends to lie dormant until your teens or twenties, unless you’re from a family of people with magic like Kady. When you do learn about it, it’s because something happened to pull it out of you. Something that already happened to Quentin here, apparently.”

She watched the two carefully. Quentin went through shock, confusion, longing, and landed on hopefulness. Julia stared at her with confusion tinged with disbelief, and Marina sighed.

“Alright, practical demonstration time.” She held up a hand and concentrated, and a little flicker of flame appeared and grew until she was holding a palm full of fire.

“Holy shit.” Julia whispered, eyes wide as she stared at the dancing flames.

“Yeah. You can learn to do this too, but it probably won’t come instinctively to you like it does me. Best we know, anyone can learn to do any kind of magic, but they have their own specialty that is easier for them, something they can do without spells and practice.”

Marina let the fireball flicker out and sat back to watch them process everything. She caught Pete’s eye, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

“What?”

“So, how was the party?”

“Fine, after we changed the music to something that wasn’t old dead white men playing pianos. And then Penny and Julia discovered that Everett is up to something naughty and might accidentally take out all the ambient magic so he can build himself a goddamn library. And Penny has half a plan.”

“Right, because those always work. So you left straight from the party? Didn’t they have anti-Travelling wards?”

She smirked. “They did. Nothing on Irene’s level, though.”

He rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. Because why not get another hedge angry at us, life was starting to get a little boring.”

“Well, hopefully whatever Penny is planning will make him not angry anymore, right Pen?”

Penny nodded. “Yeah. So, Everett wants to build a massive library right on top of one of the leyline convergences, a nature reserve called Fillory. He wants to mainline the ambient magic straight into his library, to allow it to expand and break the laws of physics. But what if we break the laws of physics just a little bit instead and create a pocket dimension that can hold his library and requires only a little ambient magic to keep it running? If we anchor it to a doorway on this plane, it would take a substantially less amount of energy to keep it running than if he built it entirely. I think, at least.”

“How do you know all that?” Kady looked a little surprised, and Marina was confused too. Penny wasn’t usually the random-book-knowledge guy, even if he was wicked clever and thought fast on his feet.

He shrugged. “I’ve had some downtime at this conference, and the last few books Everett had me acquire for him were about theories of ambient magic. I skimmed a few of the chapters, some of it was actually interesting. That’s still just guesswork, though, I don’t know if it will actually work.”

“Well, I’ll leave you brainiac types to figure out the specifics at the moment. If we’re going to be training new hedges, we’re going to have to dust off our Magic 101 books. Gimme a hand, Pete?”

As Pete shifted to get up and follow, Quentin raised his hand. “Wait. Why are you telling us this? That magic is real?”

Penny shrugged. “I’ll need Julia’s help to build a library, I don’t know the architect-side of that kind of thing. And Kady said you probably already knew, at least from whatever she heard in the car.”

Kady winced. “I wasn’t trying to listen, you just said something wasn’t Harry Potter shit, that it was real. I’ve heard things like that before when someone had their Holy Shit moment that brought out their magic and doesn’t know what to do with that. Their brain tries to make it a hallucination, or luck, or adrenaline. But they know in their hearts that something is different.”

“So, what did you do?”

Marina spoke quickly before Quentin could answer Penny’s question. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. Just because some idiot is curious doesn’t mean you need to relive that moment. You always have that choice.”

Julia smirked. “Your counselor side is showing, Marina. Although that is some damn good advice, I see why you have the job you do.”

Marina shrugged. “It’s a gift. Anyway, we’ll leave you four to talk. Pete, coming?”

She headed for the stairs and heard the couch groan as Pete got up, following her up to the second story to the three bookshelves that lined the wall between the guest room and the bathroom. A large square rug covered that section floor and the bookcases were spelled to look like they were filled with normal muggle books.

Break the glamour, though, and suddenly the bookcases are filled with jars and herbs, candles, chalk and thread, other odds and ends used in casting spells, and plenty of books and binders filled with historical, practical, and theoretical magic. They traded spells and knowledge freely with other hedges, testing new spells and sharing the results. They used Penny’s connections with the librarians and Pete’s smarmy salesperson persona to learn about new spells or hedges trying something interesting.

The section of the books on the very top shelf is beginner magic, and Pete got some of them down easily. Basic hand motions and their intents, meditation practices to get used to feeling for ambient magic, learning how to use up just enough to accomplish the goal instead of blowing all the magic in the area to snuff out a candle with a tornado. Marina went and got down a very old book on ley lines, an atlas that showed there the ambient magic flowed the strongest. Magic could be found anywhere, of course, but it was stronger and easier to use if you were closer to one of the ley lines.

“Was that one of the ones we traded with those Massachusetts hedges for?” Pete was looking over her shoulder at the book, and Marina furrowed her brow.

“No, I think Penny took this one during one of his runs for the librarians. I mean, honestly, did they think he would only grab the book they wanted? That’s just not good theft practices, Penny was doing them a favor grabbing a few extras. That way the mark can’t figure out who wanted the main book and trace it back to the librarians.”

“I know, who steals into a jewelry store to take one diamond? But hey, at least the librarians never caught on that he was lifting other books too. Added to our own collections nicely, and I even sold a few at the shop on the sly.”

“I’m sure you weren’t as sneaky as you thought, that man always knows exactly what’s going on in his shop.”

Pete swatted at her arm, and she pulled away grinning. “You know it’s true. Come on, what other books do we need to grab?”

They return to the bookshelves, pulling some out and flipping through them before discarding them or adding them to the appropriate piles that slowly grew around them on the floor. They’d put them away later.


	25. Kady

Kady listened to Penny explain his plan to build a library in a pocket dimension and tether it to the nature reserve’s magic. She agreed that it would probably only require a fraction of the magic to keep the library stable if it was fed through a doorway if they were able to hide the doorway somewhere close to the center of the reserve. They’d never been interested in creating pocket dimensions before, although Kady knew it was possible.

Penny had traveled to them before, although it was almost always as a trap that he accidentally set off in a job. The first time it had happened, he was gone for three hours longer than they had expected, and Kady had been starting to panic when he suddenly appeared back at the apartment. He told them that a paranoid hedge Everett had sent him after had created some kind of failsafe to trap anyone who messed with her collection.

He had spent the first hour trapped there trying to Travel out in a panic but just kept transporting around the empty room. Once he settled down and looked at the wards surrounding the room he was trapped in, though, he realized he just needed to adjust his way of Travelling to include the plane he was trying to get to. It wasn’t the instinctual Travelling he was used to, but he had eventually figured out the right combination of magic and will to get out.

Once he and Julia began discussing the specifics of the size of the library she got bored and headed out to the balcony with her drink. People wouldn’t think Penny was the type to get overinvested in a project, but she knew better. He hid it well behind nonchalance and attitude, but once he got an idea in his head he went at it fully. That’s why he was the better thief, he planned it all out to the second while Kady would just smash her way in without thinking it through. He said once it was a quirk from his foster homes, knowing exactly how long before the parents came home and what floorboards creaked and where he could hide the younger kids if shit went bad.

The door opened behind her, and she looked back to see Quentin stepping out with his own drink. Something fancier than her whiskey on the rocks, and he shrugged when he saw her squinting at it.

“Pete showed me how to make it, said it’s called an Old Fashion?”

Kady snorted. “Old Fashioned. Past tense, dunno why. So you had fun while we were gone?”

He nodded, picking at the hem of the sweatshirt that she noticed was one of Penny’s from Saints & Sinners, a bar that Marina had introduced them to after learning her coworker’s husband ran the place. Len gave them free drinks sometimes in exchange for their help on the occasional heist.

“How did you learn about magic? Marina said it was in your family?”

Kady took a swig of her drink. “Yeah. My mom was a hedge witch, we traveled around and met other magic-users when I was a kid. I grew up in a free-for-all community that traded spells and information with different people all around the country, always on the move until my mom got in over her head.”

“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“She sent me away, for my own safety. Wouldn’t tell me where she was when I talked to her, so I moved to New York and met up with Pete and ‘Rina. Then one of her friends called me and told me she’d been killed.”

“Oh my god, that’s awful.”

She nodded. “Yeah. I went a little crazy, ended up at Ellsworth. After I got out I decided to do something with my life that didn’t require magic. That’s why I became a cop. I couldn’t give up magic, but I couldn’t have it be the only thing in my life anymore.”

“I used to spend hours wishing magic was real.” Quentin spoke softly, and Kady turned to look at him. He was staring up at the stars barely visible past the city haze, one arm resting on the balcony rail. “Every star I saw, I wished on it. Sometimes for doing well on a test, or being able to travel into the fantasy lands I read about, or having magic to change things about myself I didn’t like.”

“I did that until I learned that just because you wish for something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

“You would think having magic would make wishing on stars seem like a normal thing to do. Don’t you need intent for the magic to work? That’s the same as focusing on a wish.”

“Yeah, I suppose. Sometimes the magic doesn’t work either, though. So much for it fixing all our problems like it does in the stories.” Kady finished her drink and felt a hand on her shoulder.

“A friend of mine told me that all magic has a price, and that the fairy tales about magic are warnings against trying to fix things without paying that price. Wishing for things to be different can’t hurt, as long as you don’t expect it to happen without putting in the effort to change them.”

Quentin went back inside, and Kady thought about what he said. She caught sight of a shooting star blazing through the sky and smiled in spite of herself as she remembered her earlier conversation with Julia about stardust. One little wish probably wouldn’t hurt.


	26. Julia

Julia focused on her hand, palm up and fingers extended at different angles. She peered down at the diagram in the book in front of her, a slim manual entitled ‘Simple Evocations’. Thumb and middle finger out straight, pinkie finger at a 90-degree angle, ring finger at 45 degrees, index finger bent at the knuckle to point up. She glanced between the diagram and her own hand, sure that it was correct. Now she just needed to say the magic word.

“Thgil. Thgil!” She sighed in frustration when nothing happened, dropping her hands to the table. “Damnit.”

Marina chuckled as she came over from the kitchen into the dining room that had turned into a makeshift worktable, scattered with books and paper.

“It’s a hard ‘t’ sound. You don’t really hear the ‘h’, it’s more of a breath mark. T’gil.” Marina put her hand up into the position that Julia had been trying to copy from the book and said it again. ‘Thgil!’.

A spark appeared in her hand, lighting up the area between her fingers. She closed her hand into a fist, and it snuffed out.

“It’s Levi-o-sa, not Levio-sa.” Julia heard Quentin say from the couch where he was reading one of the books they had brought down.

“Shut up, Coldwater!” Marina and Julia yelled in unison, and grinned at each other as he laughed from the other room.

“Come on, try it again Jules.”

She sighed and focused once more on her hand, putting her fingers once more in the position that the book showed. Marina had made it look so easy, but holding her fingers out like that made her whole hand ache with the stress.

She took a deep breath and concentrated. “Thgil!”

Nothing happened.

She looked at Marina, who nodded. “That was good, the pronunciation was perfect. Now you need to visualize what you want to happen. Here, this might help in the beginning, too.”

Julia watched as Marina picked up a box that had been sitting next to the book and dug through it, coming up with a tin with some kind of paste. Unscrewing the lid, Marina swiped two of her fingers through it and grabbed Julia’s hand to smear the paste across her palm and fingers.

“What the fuck is this?” The light green paste felt weird, kind of stringy when she ran her thumb across it.

“Phosphorus moss, ground up. It’ll help you get the light at first since it wants to light up. Try the spell again, and don’t forget to will it to happen.”

Julia stared at her hand again. “Thgil!” There was a soft spark of light at the center of her palm that grew slowly and then fizzled out once all the paste was consumed. Julia squealed in excitement.

“Oh my god, I did it! I did magic!” She jumped up and hugged Marina, who laughed and hugged her back briefly.

“Yes, you did. Now, try it again until you can do it without the paste.”

Julia sighed and sat back down.

It took four more tries before she made the light appear again, and only for a second before it sputtered out.

“Good. Keep practicing. Where’s Penny?”

“He went to get drafting paper. He should be back soon.” Julia was distracted from the spell by a pop from the living room and a crash.

“Jesus, Penny, don’t do that!” Quentin had apparently fallen off the couch in surprise when Penny Traveled back in, and she could hear Penny laugh as he headed towards the dining room. He appeared with a bag of supplies in one hand and a roll of paper in the other and sat them down on the table.

“Look, Penny!” Julia put her hand up one more time and concentrated. “Thgil!”

The spark only lasted for three seconds, but she grinned up at him anyway. “I did actual real magic! I did it!”

He chuckled at her excitement and grinned. “Good job, Wicker, we’ll make a hedge witch out of you yet. Now, if you’re done with the light spell, I think I got everything on your list. Why the hell are there like eighteen types of drafting pencils?”

Julia shrugged. “People like variety, I dunno. I doesn’t really matter, this is just a rough draft anyway.”

She grabbed the roll of paper and moved it over to a blank spot on the far end of the table, and put one sheet down with books at the corners to keep it flat. Julia reached into her pocket for her phone, but it wasn’t there. “Phone, phone, phone, where did you go.” She patted her other pockets and looked around the table, but didn’t see it.

“Marina, Penny, have you seen my phone?”

“Check under the books.” Marina shouted from the other room, and Penny began lifting up books until he found her phone wedged under one. He handed it to her, and she grinned sheepishly at him.

“Thanks. I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached to my neck.”

He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, Kady’s the same way.”

“Really?” Julia hummed. “I would have thought the cop-in-training would be better at keeping track of things.”

“Well, she’s been Kady a lot longer than she’s been a cop. Some things can’t be unlearned that quickly.”

“I suppose that’s a good point.” Julia flipped through her phone until she found the blueprints she had downloaded for several libraries. Instead of creating one from scratch, they had decided it would be quicker to use the base of another library and edit it to their specifications as they figured out the magic part.

She began drawing as Penny sorted through some of the books on the table, each settling down to their own tasks until the only sounds were the scratch of Julia’s pencil and the flipping of pages.


	27. Penny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some descriptions/flashbacks of nightmares, foster systems, drugs/alcohol, homelessness, and mental hospitals in this chapter.

“How did you discover magic?” Penny was in the middle of jotting down notes from a book on astral projection, and he looked over at Julia after he finished what he was writing. She was lounging in her chair, snacking on a cookie from the batch that Pete had made that morning and left in the kitchen. “Did you accidentally teleport into a neighbor’s house or something?”

“What? No.” He sighed and put his pencil down. “I don’t just teleport. I also hear people’s thoughts.”

“You’re a --” Penny held up a hand to stop her from saying that fucking word.

“Nope, don’t say it.”

She smirked at him. “When did you start hearing voices?”

“I was fourteen.”

It had been the middle of the night, and Penny had woken up to a sound. He had thought it had been one of the kids shouting, but when he silently crept to their room and opened the door, both boys were still asleep. He had watched them for a minute and was about to leave when Hank shifted in his sleep and he heard another shout. ‘No, don’t take him! I’ll go with you.”’

Penny had stared at him as he shifted again, and then quickly went over and knelt by his side of the double bed. “Hank, wake up! Hank!”

He had shot up in the bed and stared at him, his big blue eyes wide with confusion and leftover fear. “P'nny? What --?”

Penny had sat down on the bed and pulled Hank towards him, running his hands through his short blonde hair as he calmed down from the abrupt wake-up. “It’s okay, kiddo, I’ve got you. You’re okay.”

Hank had sagged against him as his heart finally stopped racing. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, kiddo. Do you want to talk about it?” He had known the answer even as he asked, having asked the same question before when Hank had his nightmares. The younger boy shook his head.

“Did I shout again? Do you think they heard?” Penny knew he was worried about their ‘parents’ again, and he had shaken his head quickly.

“No, they didn’t hear a thing. Look, even Don is still asleep.” He had looked over at his brother, sleeping peacefully through the whole thing, and then back at him.

“How did you know, then?” That was a really good question, Penny knew he couldn’t tell Hank that he had heard him shouting in his mind. That was fucking crazy.

“I was just getting a drink from the bathroom and peeked in to make sure you boys were okay. You were twitching in your sleep, I didn’t want you to accidentally wake up Donny. Now, try and get some sleep, okay?”

He nodded in agreement and Penny had waited until he settled back down before drawing the covers back over both the brothers. He had left their room and gone back to his own, puzzling over what had just happened until he decided it was a fluke. He still hadn’t gotten much sleep after that night.

“Did you tell your parents?” Penny shook his head at Julia’s question.

“They weren’t my parents, just another foster family.”

“You grew up in the foster system?”

“Yeah. Hank and Donny were foster kids, too. Brothers with two different deadbeat fathers, and their mom died a few months before they got placed with those foster parents. Hank was eleven and Don was nine.”

“So they weren’t really your brothers?”

“Nah. But I kept them out of trouble as much as I could and made sure they had food when the ‘rentals spent the grocery allowance on booze.”

“You were only fourteen, though, what could you do?”

“You learn lots of tricks to surviving the system when you’ve been in it since you were eight. Asking for money leads to beatings and lectures about being ungrateful, but if you wait until they come home drunk and steal a few bucks, they usually just chalk it up to spending it at the bar.” Penny shrugged. “Or just learn to pick the pockets of the rich kids at school.”

“Jesus, Penny. You shouldn’t have had to do that.”

He scowled. “No one else was going to fucking do it, so I had to. Who cares about the poor ethnic foster kid from Florida? Not any of the families I was placed with, especially after I started hearing goddamn voices in my head.”

“It kept happening?”

“Yeah. And they got worse.” He had tried to drown them out with music, had skipped school as often as he could because he couldn’t concentrate anyway in a building with hundreds of students thinking about a million things at once. He tried drinking the voices away, or smoking them out with the stoners that frequented the back entrances. Nothing had worked, and Penny had gotten a reputation as ‘that weird angry kid’ who couldn’t focus and flinched at nothing. Eventually he was being sent back from another foster or group home after barely two weeks, getting into fights and caught stealing.

He finally ran after a screaming match with his last foster father. Grabbing the money he had saved up and the one bag with his whole life inside, he caught a bus to Atlanta and lied about being eighteen to get a shitty hotel room. From there he traveled around as much as he could, moving on after stealing the next bus or plane fare. He had learned to keep his head down and stay quiet, until one day in New York City.

Penny had been minding his own business on one of the rougher sides of town when he got caught up in a raid. The cops would come out and send the homeless people scrambling into alleys to get out of their nets, and Penny was right behind them when he had heard a shout. He didn’t know if it was out loud or in his head, but he had turned to see Evie, a young girl he had shared his jacket with a few times, struggling to get out of the grip of one of the cops. He had run back and hit the cop, getting him to release Evie and grab him instead as she ran off as fast as she could.

They had thrown him into the general pen that they kept the homeless in for twenty-four hours, while they ran through their databases looking for anyone that matched so they could get locked up for petty thefts. The onslaught of thoughts surrounding Penny was too much to take, and he had ended up huddled into the corner with his hands over his ears. He had been shuttled off to the mental hospital with some of the others and had gradually regained his senses in a small room with no one else’s thoughts in his head but his own.

“You were at Ellsworth Downs too?” He glanced over at Julia in surprise.

“How did you know that?”

She shrugged sheepishly. “I know Kady was there, she told me after I told her where we were going to pick Q up from.”

Penny nodded slowly. “That makes sense. Yeah, I met Kady there, and then came to stay at the apartment after we got out. I learned about magic here from Pete and Marina, the same as you’re doing.”

“They should open up a school or something.”

“Absolutely not, can you imagine Marina and Pete with access to impressionable young witches and wizards? It’d end up being a breeding ground for criminal activity.”

Julia laughed. “That’s why Kady would be there, the cop to teach them the right side of the law.”

“Right. We totally didn’t move to Chicago because we knew too many thieves in New York to make a career as a cop a conflict of interest.”

She grinned. “Really?”

Penny nodded. “Really. Well, and Chicago had a better police academy.”

“I bet Kady’s at the top of her class, isn’t she?”

“Of course she is. Well, tied with some punk named Will, but she's up there. Damn persistent when she wants to be, she’s like a dog with a bone sometimes.”

“More like a cat with a mouse.” Julia smirked at him, and Penny grinned back at her. He heard a stifled laugh and looked over to see Pete making a drink at the bar. Pete wiggled his eyebrows at him, and Penny scowled and glared at him before turning back to the book he was reading with intent. Damn conniving idiots.

He was not flirting with Julia.

Even if she was smart, and sarcastic, and funny.

He wasn’t.


	28. Kady

Kady walked in from a trip downtown to a friend of Marina’s, arms full of several books and packages. Quentin, practicing handshapes from a book, nodded from the couch in hello as she shut the door. She went and put the packages down on the kitchen island, and glanced into the dining room.

Julia was standing at the table and drawing something on a large piece of paper spread across half the table, and Penny was peering over her shoulder with a hand out to point at something. She nodded at whatever his question had been, and reached for an eraser that Penny had already picked up and was holding out to her. She muttered a distracted thanks at him as she took it, and he smiled as he watched her erase whatever the mistake had been. A real smile instead of his signature smirk, Kady was surprised to see, and she sighed in relief that they were getting along.

“Kady, is that you? Did you get everything?” Kady heard Marina upstairs, and she grabbed the packages and headed up to give them to her.

Marina had rolled up the carpet that had laid in front of the bookcases and shoved it to the side, revealing the plain wood underneath. They used this area for the ritual spells, those that required actual ingredients or chalk designs instead of just finger motions and intent. Marina was collecting some of the jars in groups and setting them aside for different spells.

“Hey, ‘Rina. Yeah, I got the powdered silver, feathers, and glass beads from Duke and everything else from Whitley, although I still don’t know what you need a snake’s tongue for.” She set everything down on the floor and opened the packages as Marina came to investigate and look at several of the ingredients to check their quality.

“Snake tongue and honeycomb, I’m going to make a perfume with a low-level suggestion spell. Just in case regular convincing doesn’t do the trick, it never hurts to have a little magical assistance. Did you get the pearls?”

Kady dug through one of the bags and handed her a little bag of black three-inch pearls and two owl feathers. “For figuring out what Julia and Quentin can do, I assume?”

“Exactly. Your boyfriend and girlfriend seem to be getting along now, now that they have a magical project to work on.”

Kady blushed and shoved at Marina, who ducked away easily with a sly grin.

“Shut up, she’s not my fucking girlfriend.”

“Sure, sure. I’m just saying, Penny seems to like her too, if that’s what you’re worried about. I think he got over being jealous.”

“He just thought Julia was flirting with me or something.”

Marina raised an eyebrow. “You think she wasn’t? I mean, it wasn’t super obvious, but there was definitely some flirting going on. Besides, you told me about the horseback riding and ice skating. You told her about Parker and the boys, didn’t you? And she didn’t seem shocked or disgusted, right?”

Kady nodded slowly. “Yeah, she didn’t mind when I told her about them, but that’s different than getting into a real poly relationship and you know it.”

“You’re just stalling. Have you talked to Penny about it?”

“No, of course not! I just got him to talk to Julia, I’m not going to jump straight to ‘can we get a third’, that would be insane.”

“Well, just think about it. She and Penny are going to be spending a lot of time together on this project, to get it done before the Fillory sale goes through. Go get Quentin, will you? I’m going to start setting up this spell.”

Kady left to go back downstairs as Marina began shifting some of the spell components from the bookcase and laying them out on the floor. She headed over to where Quentin was trying to get the saltshaker to lift off the table using one of the short-term telekinesis spells. It wobbled a little and slowly lifted off a quarter-inch from the table as she stood back and watched, not wanting to break his concentration.

“Well done, that was pretty good for a beginner.” He grinned at her as she spoke. “Marina wants you for a thing upstairs, she’s going to try and figure out what your, ah, x-men mutation is.”

Quentin snorted as he got up and followed her. “My x-men mutation?”

“Yeah. Blame Pete for that one, him and his Magneto metal manipulation. Remember how everyone with the potential can learn most spells, but some magic just seems to come intuitively without practice? Like Marina’s fireballs? Pete calls that the x-men mutation.”

“Makes sense, yeah. What’s your mutation, then?”

“I’m telekinetic, I can move objects with my mind. But I’m also pretty good at offensive magic, I use that more than the telekinesis.”

“Huh. That’s cool.” He stopped at the top of the stairs, raising his eyebrows at the bookcases. “Woah. Lots of magic books.”

“Of course, now come sit down.” Marina sat on the floor in the middle of four candles spread out six feet across, with the pearls and feathers next to her and a small metal bowl and a fifth candle in front of her. She motioned to the floor across from her, and Quentin looked over at Kady. She nodded as she sat down out of the way to watch and he did as Marina said, sitting criss-crossed like she was.

“What are you doing?” He took the pearl Marina handed him and looked at it.

“Magic. Now, hold that and roll it around in your hands. Slowly.”

Quentin did as she said, and Marina held a second pearl as she snapped the fingers of her free hand. The five candles lit instantly, and she picked up a feather and lit it with the flame of the candle in front of her. The feather began burning as Marina spoke, and she dropped it into the bowl.

“Yfitnedi eht cigam detcartta otni eht lraep.”

She looked at the pearl in her hand, which had changed slightly. Kady could see that there were thin lines all across it as if it had been shattered apart, and then suddenly the lines fused back together until the pearl had a smooth surface once again.

“Interesting.”

Quentin was staring at the pearl in Marina’s hand. “What does that mean? Did I break it?”

“No, I don’t think so. I think it broke, and then you fixed it.”

“What, like a mending spell in Dungeons & Dragons?” He flushed in nerd-boy embarrassment immediately, but Marina only shrugged.

“Maybe. We’ll have to experiment to see how much of an area of effect it has, but at least we have an idea of what you can do now.”

He grinned suddenly, as if the full implications of having magic had finally broken through the shock and awe of the last twenty-four hours. “Awesome.”

Kady smirked and went to go get Julia.

Magic was pretty awesome.


	29. Julia

Julia came downstairs and headed for the bar, pouring herself a glass of rum punch that Pete had made in a pitcher. She took a sip as she went to sit next to Q on the couch since Penny had been sent on another supply run, this time for food.

“So? How’d it go?” He had set aside the book he had been reading and was watching her expectantly.

“Marina thinks it’s some kind of knowledge-understanding and manipulation. The pearl lit up like a bunch of brain neurons firing, and they kept connecting, disconnecting, and then reconnecting in different patterns. She doesn’t really get it, but I could see the patterns. Kady suggested that maybe it was being able to intuitively understand how something works. Which makes sense, I suppose.”

“It’s the perfect mutation for you, Jules.”

Julia stared at him. “The perfect what?”

He shrugged and waved a hand. “X-men, mutations, special thing you can do intuitively. Apparently it’s all Magneto-Pete’s fault.”

“Pete can move metal with his mind?”

“According to Kady, I haven’t seen him to ask yet. How did this become our lives, Jules?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know. We went from partying with El and Margo to trying to save a magical nature reserve. Speaking of Eliot, have you talked with him? Do you think he knows what’s really going on?”

Quentin avoided her gaze, looking back to the book in his lap. “I talked to him this morning, but I didn’t tell him about the magic, just passed along some of your and Alice’s research. I mean, what do I tell him? ‘Hey, magic is real and your nature reserve is going to be destroyed by a bunch of librarians, but don’t worry! We might have a way to stop it by building a library in another dimension instead!’ That sounds stupid even in my head, and there’s no way I can prove it over the phone.”

“What about FaceTime? You could try proving it on video.”

“Maybe. I’ll see if he’s free tonight and talk to him and Margo.” A sly grin slid across his features as he looked sideways at her. “What should I tell him about you and Kady?”

Julia furrowed her brow. “What about me and Kady?”

“Oh come on, Jules, you’ve totally been flirting with her!”

She scoffed. “That’s ridiculous, Kady has a boyfriend! I’m not trying to steal her away from Penny, even if she is funny and smart and -- shut up!” She reached over to nudge his shoulder to make him stop snickering.

“Right, because you totally haven’t been flirting with Penny either, I suppose.”

“Of course not, we’re just working together on the library draft! He’s had some really great ideas about the infrastructure of the building, a couple of places to tie in magical supports to the rooms so that it can expand as needed. He found this one spell that would be a perfect way to ...” Julia trailed off as she noticed Quentin looking at her with a smirk, and she raised her eyebrows at him. “What?”

“Uh-huh. You’ve been sharing the same room all day, cuddled up together in front of that table and bouncing ideas off each other. You didn’t notice that he was practically hugging you from behind as you drew?”

“No he wasn’t, he was just trying to see what I was doing from a better angle. He doesn’t even like me, remember?”

“Sure, sure, keep telling yourself that. I’m gonna go see if El is up for a FaceTime after dinner, wish me luck.”

Quentin put his book on the coffee table and walked off, and Julia stared at the cover. Of course he was wrong, she wasn’t flirting with Penny! They just, they were trying to see the same paper. Their fingers only touched a few times on a section of the blueprints, just to make sure they were on the same page. He had just been trying to see the paper, that’s why he had stood so close behind her that his breathes moved wisps of her hair behind her ear.

Julia blinked as she thought back to that mid-morning and remembered just how close Penny had been standing to her. It was closer to her than any man had stood in six months, except for Quentin and Eliot. She realized that she hadn’t been panicking thinking about what he could do from behind her, or how he could manipulate her from that position. In fact, she had felt safe. Safer than she had in a long time.

Well, shit. Maybe Q was right.

She took a drink as she sank into the cushions of the couch with a groan.

He was going to be insufferable if she told him.


	30. Quentin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a description of a slight panic attack in this one.

Quentin looked down at his phone and took a deep breath before pushing the FaceTime button on Eliot’s number. It rang twice before Eliot picked up, and suddenly he could see El’s face filling the screen.

“Hey, Q!” His boyfriend grinned at him, and Quentin found himself grinning in response as he realized how much he had missed seeing Eliot. And Margo, who pulled Eliot’s hand back so that she could share the screen with him and wiggled her fingers at him in hello.

“Hey, El. Margo. I missed you guys.”

“We missed you, too, Coldwater, now who are these people you’ve been staying with and how have we not met them if they’re as awesome as you’ve described?”

Quentin furrowed his brow in confusion. “I never said they were awesome, although they are pretty cool. All I texted you was that they have a mini-bar setup and make fancy drinks sometimes.”

“Which is enough to make them awesome, especially if you and Julia like them enough to stay there and go to parties.”

“I didn’t go to the party, I stayed at the apartment with Pete.”

“Who was the one who made you drinks, yes? Is he cute?” Always the first question from Margo, he should have guessed.

“Um, yes? But that’s not the point.”

“Yes, so what is the point? Starting a text conversation with ‘hey can I FaceTime you tonight’ can only lead to either very good things or to very kinky things.” Quentin rolled his eyes at his boyfriend’s suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “Now, dish, what’s going on?”

“Um, okay. So, um. The people we’ve been staying with? Um. Theyhavemagicandicandomagictoo.” He winced as he rushed through that, and stopped talking as Margo put her hand up.

“I dunno what the fuck you just said, so maybe try that again.”

He took another deep breath and looked at the door of the guest room he was sitting in. Marina had spelled it so it was soundproof, to give him some privacy to talk to his boyfriend. “The people we’ve been staying with are hedge witches and they can do magic and magic is real, and I can do magic too and I didn’t go crazy like I thought.”

He glanced back at the phone, expecting twin expressions of shock. Margo didn’t disappoint, gaping at the screen with her eyebrows almost to her hairline. Eliot, though. He looked almost uneasy, but he didn’t seem surprised by the reveal of magic being real.

“El? You okay?”

He winced and nodded. “Yeah. They’re teaching you magic? Is it safe there?”

That wasn’t the question Quentin had been expecting, but began to confirm a suspicion he’d had ever since Penny told them the nature reserve was a highly magical location. “Well. I think so? Why, is it dangerous?”

Eliot winced again. “It can be. If you learn it in an unprotected space it can sometimes get out of control and have unintended side effects. Ow!”

Margo had apparently kicked Eliot’s leg, and she was glaring at him. “Did you know?”

“Did I know what?”

“You know what, Eliot Waugh. Did you know that magic is real?”

He winced yet again. “Um, yeah. I did. I do, I can do magic. I mean, I haven’t, not since leaving Filmore. There was an incident, I swore I’d never use it again. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else. Not any of you, not my family.”

He was rambling, obviously trying to backtrack and explain why he had never told them, and he started talking faster and faster until Margo pulled him into a hug. The camera angle went a little wonky and Quentin found himself staring at what might have been part of a door, but he didn’t mind. He could hear Margo reminding Eliot to breathe and reassuring him that they weren’t -- that she wasn’t -- really mad at him. That they wouldn’t leave him. Quentin wished he could be there, but he knew Margo had even more experience with El’s insecurities and she would take care of him.

It took another minute for the camera to zoom back to their faces, and El smiled sheepishly at the camera.

“Sorry, Q.”

He shook his head, smiling at the video. “Nothing to be sorry for.”

Margo coughed. “Not about that, anyway. You still need to make up for not telling us by showing me some goddamn magic.”

“I introduced you to Fen, wasn’t that magic enough?” He leaned towards the camera to stage-whisper into the phone. “She’s been pining. It’s disgusting.”

Margo smacked him. “Shut up, bitch. I had to listen to you pine after supposedly-straight-boy Quentin for long enough, it’s fair payback.”

“Yes, well, I’m here to tell that Fen is mostly a lesbian and likes ladies, so please just go ask her out already.” There was a slight pause. “And yes, I’ll show you some magic.”

“Can you teach me?”

“I dunno, I’m not sure how the whole muggle-wizard thing works, I never learned how to tell who had magic and who was a muggle.”

Quentin broke in. “I can ask Marina, she had some kind of spelled glass or something that she held up to Jules and me to see if we had magic.”

Eliot nodded, impressed. “Oh, that’s cool. The magic here isn’t really structured or taught, which I guess can lead to some gaps in knowing how it actually works.”

There was a rap at the door, and Quentin called out to let whoever was there know they could come in. Marina poked her head into the room, and Quentin waved her in.

“We were just talking about you. Eliot knows about magic, but not like you and Pete. How did you do that thing, where you could see that Julia and I had the potential for magic? Margo wants to learn. Can you do it through FaceTime? Or teach Eliot how to do it?”

Marina raised an eyebrow at him. “Take a damn breath, Coldwater. Hello, friends of Quentin. I’m Marina, top bitch in New York.”

Margo snorted from the other side of the video. “Says who?”

“Be nice, Bambi. Hello, Marina, I’m Eliot. This is Margo, the other top bitch in New York. You can have a duel over the title later, when we don’t have a wellspring to save.”

“A wellspring? Shit, is that what the nature reserve is?” Marina’s eyebrows rose. “That actually makes sense now, why the Order would want to build their library there. Well, that’s good to know.”

Quentin was confused, but he dutifully continued to hold the phone up so Marina could talk to El.

“So, about the whole magic potential test?” He tried to move the conversation along.

“Oh. Yeah, that should be easy enough. Margo, is it? Take the phone and hold it up to you, like you’re taking a selfie. Keep it as steady as you can.” She took out a familiar piece of glass and held it up to her eye as she took the phone from Quentin to move it closer. She looked through the glass for longer than she had when looking at Julia and him, but Quentin supposed it was harder to focus through the cell phone.

“Yeah, you have the magic potential too, Margo. We always seem to end up collecting in packs subconsciously, birds of a feather and all that I suppose. Anyway, you should be able to do magic, although if you want to learn your specialty that might be a little tricky.”

Quentin hummed in thought. “Could you teach Eliot how to do that thing with the pearl? Maybe he could do it with Margo, and tell you what happened.”

“It’s possible. You need a few things, though.” Marina sat down on Quentin’s bed as she talked Eliot through the ritual, and what he would need to be able to do it properly. Apparently there were quite a few people who trafficked in magic items in Filmore, and Eliot knew someone named Tick who could get them whatever supplies they needed. Not really surprising, Quentin mused, if you thought about the proximity of the reserve and how many people in that town probably had magic themselves. Like Hogsmeade.

“Anyway, I’ll text you the spell from Quentin’s phone.” Marina turned to him and handed him back the phone. “I came up to tell you that it was dinnertime, Penny got back with Indian from a really good place we know. So wrap it up, the food’s probably getting cold.”

“Can’t you just heat it up, with your fireball magic?”

She swatted him on the back of the head, and he raised a hand placatingly. “Sorry, I’ll hurry. Promise.”

“You better.” She smirked. “And I can, but it can occasionally catch the takeout containers on fire. Much easier just to pop it into the microwave, which we won’t have to do because you’re going to get your ass in gear, right Coldwater?”

“Yes ma’am, absolutely.”

She left and he said goodbye to Eliot and Margo, promising to check in with them tomorrow with more information.

“Talk to you later. Love you.”

“We love you, too, Q.” Eliot waved goodbye and Margo blew him a kiss as they disconnected the call and he headed downstairs.


	31. Marina

Marina waited until everyone was done eating before turning to Julia and Quentin.

“So, here’s the deal. We’re going to be doing a little magic tomorrow night, if you want to join in we won’t say no. The more people the better, and it’s not beginner magic but it’s not exactly easy to fuck up either.”

Quentin blinked at her. “What kind of magic is it?”

“Shielding spell.” Pete was always quick to get to the point. “Basically you just concentrate on visualizing what she says, and she and I cast the actual spell.”

“Thank you, Pete, I can speak for myself you know.”

He smirked at her. “I know. I just say it in fewer words than you do.”

“Whatever, jerk.”

“Trainwreck.” She scowled at him, and Kady coughed to direct everyone’s attention to herself instead of on her and Pete.

“Maybe we should get back to the important conversation at hand?”

“Right.” Marina looked back at the newbies. “He’s right. It’s technically a two-person spell but having others there to focus the energy the way we want makes it stronger. So, you’re in?”

Julia spoke up. “Why do you need a shielding spell? Who did you piss off enough that you need magical protection from them?”

Marina winced. “Well, we hypothetically may have borrowed some of our old employer’s money. And maybe some of her spell books and amulets. Hypothetically.”

“Borrowed without the intent to return?” Julia smirked. “Hypothetically, of course.”

“Right. And Irene, our boss, well. She might be a very powerful hedgewitch, and she might have hated losing some of her best performers.”

She and Pete had spent the day before planning their break-in, which was easy enough to carry out for the head of the dancers and one of the bouncers. Marina had studied the wards during the week once they had decided they were leaving. They had known she kept a cut of the money that they had earned, everyone knew that, but that was just part of show biz. They were really going after one amulet -- an Emerson’s Alloy. It was supposed to protect the wearer from harm, and they knew Irene had one in her safe.

Pete had found a spell that should break the wards without tripping the magical alarm, and Marina practiced it until she could perform it perfectly. She was better at picking locks and wards, even if Pete had argued that he could do it.

The heist had gone off perfectly, and they had snagged the amulet quickly enough. And then, surrounded by all that money and obviously-important books and scrolls, they had made the split-second decision to take as much as they could fit inside Marina’s enchanted bag.

Apparently it had been the right thing to do, because it had thrown off Irene’s tracking spells after they fenced half of it and buried the others in several layers of protection and anti-tracking spells. They kept tabs on her through some of the dancers still at the club who had no love lost for Irene and helped them stay out of her crosshairs.

“At the strip club?” How the hell did Quentin know that? Marina narrowed her eyes at Pete, and he shrugged.

“What? I may have mentioned being a drag queen. Just a little.”

“Of course you did, Lovelady.”

Julia didn’t seem surprised either, and Marina rolled her eyes at Kady this time. “Really? Do you guys just tell everyone you meet that you used to dance for money within the first week you know them?”

“You’re one to talk, what about Harley?”

“I didn’t tell her in the first week, though! Besides, she probably already knew, she’s dating the boss and I told Pam when she asked why I was looking for a new job. Well, not the whole theft part, just the dancing. That’s not the point.”

Julia cut in. “The point is, you’re doing a shielding spell and need some extra energy to make it strong enough to keep this lady out. Tomorrow evening?”

“Yeah, it’s the Yule Solstice. The strongest time of the year to do certain types of magic, like renewing old wards.”

“Do you two think you’ll be finished with the draft of the library by then?” Pete looked between Penny and Julia, who shared a glance before Penny nodded.

“Yeah, we should be, we’re just fine-tuning some details. And then we can Travel to Filmore the next day.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Marina stood up from the couch. “Who wants a drink?”


	32. Penny

Penny Traveled downstairs the next morning to jot down an idea he’d had for the blueprint, how to anchor it to the material plane, and found Julia already in the dining room. Or rather, still in the dining room, since she was fast asleep at the table and didn’t seem to have made it upstairs the night before.

When Penny had left, she had said she was going to head up soon, that she was only going to look up one thing before they would continue in the morning. He shook his head fondly, he should have known that she would get distracted and then stay up all night.

He peeked over to make sure the couch was empty before he carefully pulled Julia’s chair out enough that he could pick her up. She stirred a little as he got her up from the table, but just shifted closer to him instead of waking up. He walked slowly, remembering all the times he had done this for Kady after she would fall asleep reviewing case studies or test material.

Settling Julia down on the couch, Penny went and got the blanket from under the coffee table and nestled it over her. She muttered something in her sleep and shifted again, and he whispered soothing sounds as he ran a hand through her silky brown hair and hoped she would stay asleep. She needed the rest.

She did settle down after that, but he stayed there stroking her hair and watching her sleep for another minute or so before he left and went back into the dining room. He sat down in the chair and looked over the edits she had made to the draft. On a scrap piece of paper on top, Penny found what looked to be the beginnings of a sigil that she had marked as ‘expanding?’. He studied it for several minutes, noting with approval the artistic design that made it almost seem like pure decoration. She was good at hiding the intent into the symbol, although he thought he could pick apart the letters she had used to make up the sigil.

Pete had given them a book on how to create sigils using the roman alphabet letters, which had seemed the easiest way to set a limit on the size of the library that could then expand as needed. If they put a sigil on the columns that were already going to be in place for the infrastructure, the librarians could tap two columns and double the size between them, with a new column in the center. That was part of their reasoning for having a simple roof structure, so that it could be expanded without needing to copy fancy architecture.

Sigils are created using the letters of the statement of intent, usually minus the vowels and certain letters, although Pete said that was up to individual interpretation. Julia had scrawled a statement across the top of the paper, ‘Double size between columns’, and then crossed out all the unnecessary letters like Pete’s book had instructed. That had left her with ‘DBLSZBTWCLM’, and she had rearranged the letters and drawn some smaller, larger, backward, or upside down until they created a sigil she liked. There were six other drafts that she had crossed out, and Penny shook his head at her perfectionism.

He had to admit that the finished sigil was beautiful, and he marveled at the care that she had put into it. Penny had watched her look through the book Pete had given them, picking apart patterns in the spell sigils that he couldn’t even see. There was a glossary of commonly-used symbol arrangements that could be added into a hedge’s own sigil, and she had devoured it and was retracing them onto her own paper in practice within minutes. She could instantly find the letters hidden inside the symbols, and Penny had watched her face light up with glee every time she figure out the meaning of each one.

“‘Morning.” Penny looked up and saw Pete leaning against the wall. He tilted his head towards the couch and put a finger to his lips, and Pete shifted to look over and see Julia sleeping there. He raised his eyebrows as he came to stand next to Penny.

“Did she fall asleep at the table?” He whispered, and Penny nodded.

“Yeah, I moved her when I came down to write down an idea.”

“How sweet.” Penny glanced up at the smirk on Pete’s face and rolled his eyes.

“Not this again. I just moved her because falling asleep at tables is not good for anyone, not because I have a fucking crush on her or something. God, you and Marina are really stuck on this whole thing, aren’t you.”

“Only because we have eyes, dipshit. You spent all day yesterday with her, are you telling me you don’t like her even a little bit?”

He shrugged defensively, and his eyes fell on the sigil that Julia had spent a fraction of the time it would have taken him to create. “She’s smart.”

“‘She’s smart’ Jesus H, Pen, don’t be a fucking idiot. I caught you laughing at some dumb pun she made, she’s more than smart. She’s funny and cute and you carried her to the fucking sofa so she could sleep more comfortably!”

“Shhhh, dumbass, you’ll wake her up!” Penny hissed at him, listening to hear for any movement from the other room. Pete smirked at him, and Penny blushed. “Shut the fuck up, Pete. I already have a girlfriend.”

“Which would be a valid reason if I didn’t know Kady. Unfortunately for you, I do, so I know that she’s totally fine with polyamorous relationships as long as everyone is clear on the boundaries. And you’ve been around us long enough that I also know you don’t actually have a problem with alternative lifestyles or whatever the kids are calling it these days, but you’ve never thought about it for yourself. Which is fine, but maybe think about it just a little. Then you can stop ignoring the fact that you like Julia and Kady likes Julia, and I think she likes both of you too.”

Penny sat there, shocked into silence by everything Pete said as the other man left to start the coffee machine. Alternative lifestyles weren’t the problem, he knew plenty of people who lived like that. Hell, he knew Kady and Marina and Pete had had an arrangement like that for a while! It had never bothered him. But Pete was right, he had never thought about that kind of relationship for himself. Not really.

He had never thought he would find anyone else he liked enough to have an actual relationship with until he had met Kady. Before the hospital, he had only had one-night-stands with nameless women and the occasional man. Sex had just been a tool to quiet the fucking voices in his head, sometimes to get money if he was already looking for it anyway. Anything else was impossible to imagine, and having someone he wanted to let in past the walls he put up had seemed like a far-fetched fantasy. After all, who would care about him? Who would care about the homeless street kid who heard voices in his fucking head?

And then he had met Kady, and she had wormed her way past all of his defenses. He had told her about the voices, and she hadn’t run away from him as he had expected. If anything, she had brought him closer and introduced him to her world, to a world full of magic instead of insanity. And he had loved her for it, and fallen in love with her without even noticing until it was too late. She was his whole world, and he had been perfectly content with that.

Until Julia. He had been jealous at first, or at least he had told himself. But the last few days had shown him a different side of her than he had let himself see. They were planning out the library, but they also joked and laughed. She knew how he liked his coffee by the fourth cup, and he knew she put too much sugar in hers but still added it in when it was his turn.

And he did like her, if he let himself admit it. She had snuck her way past his walls, and he didn’t even mind. He had answered her questions about his life when she had asked, even if there was part of his brain that screamed not to. But he had, and she hadn’t run away either like he had feared she would. Instead she had listened, and even when she had been obviously shocked by what he had done or something he said, she hadn’t judged him.

He hadn’t realized he had been waiting for rejection until it never came. For the second time in his life, he had opened up to someone and been accepted just the way he was.

Goddamn corny bullshit. Goddammit, Pete.


	33. Kady

Kady came back inside with Quentin from where they had been testing what he had decided to call his ‘minor mending’ magic. Apparently it was a Dungeons and Dragons thing. Kady had never played herself, but she knew Penny had dabbled in the game. He had laughingly called one of her battle magic spells ‘Magic Missile’, and when she told Quentin that he had instantly demanded to see it. Then he had proceeded to mend the beer bottle she had shattered, so at least it was a useful demonstration.

They had found an empty alleyway that Kady had made sure would stay empty with a small determent spell, and the nightclub it was up against was closed in the middle of the day. Kady had collected bottles, cans, and even a flattened bike tire for Quentin to test his ability on, breaking the bottles and pressing the cans flat with her own telekinesis. They practiced for two hours until Quentin was exhausted and Kady knew the owner and staff of Verdant would be coming soon to start prepping for that night.

“Perfect timing, Kady I need you.” Pete called from the kitchen as she closed the door, and she shrugged out of her shoes before heading in, Quentin hot on her heels. Pete was cooking something in a pan on the stove, and she could hear the sizzling of cooking meat as she got closer. He glanced at her and Quentin as he stirred it.

“Someone hand me the chopped onion, and someone else find spices. Nutmeg, pepper, rosemary, salt.”

Quentin went and collected the cutting board with onion and possibly celery pieces on it, and poured them into the pan while Kady dug out the requested spices from their spots in the spice rack. She brought them over to Pete and took over stirring while he put dashes and spoonfuls into the pan at random.

“What are you doing?” She finally asked.

“Cooking, obviously, doesn’t the apron give it away?” He was wearing an apron that said ‘Your Opinion Wasn’t In The Recipe’, a gag gift that Penny had gotten him for his last birthday.

“You don’t usually wear an apron to cook.”

“I do when I steal one of Marina’s favorite skirts to wear, and she’d kill me if I got it dirty or stained in any way. Besides, crop tops and cooking don’t go well.” He twirled in the deep purple flared skirt, and Kady rolled her eyes.

“Right.” She went to look at the recipe on the counter. “But why are you cooking a chicken pie?”

“We cannot eat takeaway for another meal, Kady-cat, didn’t you say that two days ago? Besides, it’s Yule. We might as well have a good dinner before we do the warding tonight. What do you think, Q, is this too much pepper?”

He held the spoon out and Quentin obediently tasted it, and then thought for a second. “Do you have any cinnamon?”

“Ooh, I like where this is headed.” Pete turned to her, and Kady scrunched up her nose at the idea of cinnamon in a chicken pie. “Kitty, please? I’ll only use a little bit.”

She sighed and handed over the cinnamon, and he put a dash in. “Anything else?”

“I can’t believe you’re using store-bought pie crusts, Josh would kill me if he knew. He makes his own from scratch.” Kady and Pete both looked over at him, and Quentin clarified. “My roommate, he runs a bakery. I work there. He makes the best bread.”

Julia called over from in the dining room. “He really does!”

Pete grinned. “Hey Penny, wanna go buy some bread while the pies are baking?”

Kady looked over to see Penny flick off the entire kitchen without pausing what he was writing, and grinned when she caught Julia’s eye.

“Not right now, but in like half an hour.” Pete wasn’t even phased by Penny’s refusal, and everyone knew he would end up going anyway.

“Fine, whatever.”

“Great.” Pete went back to adding ingredients to the pie filling, and Kady left Quentin to help him as she wandered over to check out the nerd table.

It was basically chaos, papers covering every inch of the one end that wasn’t piled with books. As she watched, Julia drew some lines on the paper in front of her and turned to get Penny’s opinion. He nodded and showed her whatever he had been writing, and she scratched something out with her own pencil to add in a different word. Kady moved behind him to peer at the paper.

He had written up a contract. If the librarians agreed to the interdimensional library (Julia had changed it to ‘intradimensional’, Kady was going to take her word for it), they would leave the nature reserve alone except for the small amount of ambient magic needed to build and run the library and anchor it to Fillory. After helping to get the library built and filled with the collections, Penny would be freed from his own contract and Everett would continue to keep up his end of the deal about not telling Irene.

Kady shrugged when Penny looked up to ask her opinion. “Seems like it covers all our bases, but we should still have Julia’s lawyer friend look it over.”

Julia nodded her head in agreement, still drawing on her own paper. “Margo can check it out when we get there tomorrow, look for any loopholes that we missed.”

“Good idea.” Penny sighed. “I hope this works.”

Kady hugged him from behind. “It will. I’m sure of it.”

“Of course it will work, it’s our idea.” Julia shrugged. “Besides, those fucking librarians have no reason to say no, they’re getting the library that they want. It just happens to be in another dimension. Really, it’s a win-win all around.”

Kady nodded. “What she said.”

Julia grinned at her as she put a hand on Penny’s forearm. “Don’t worry, everything will work out. Trust me.”

Somehow, when she said it like that, Kady did. Even if she hadn’t been the one Julia had been reassuring.


	34. Julia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for conversations about abusive relationships (Reynard, again) and self-esteem issues. Which might not need a warning, but it's there just in case.

Julia heard someone call her name, and she muttered something to the effect of ‘yes, more coffee’. They laughed, and she jumped as a hand descended in front of her face. She looked up and blinked at Pete.

“The fuck?”

He grinned at her. “Jules, it’s almost time for actual food. You can’t just subsist on mainlining caffeine, I promise that doesn’t work.”

“Just a minute, I’m almost done checking this.”

“Penny said you were finished ten minutes ago when he went out with Kady.” She tried not to be disappointed at the reminder that Kady and Penny were dating, but something must have shown on her face because Pete waved a hand. “Not like that, they just went to pick up something from a friend of ours.”

“Not like what?” Marina came in with a glass of wine in one hand and perched on the edge of one of the chairs.

“Penny and Kady went out, but not like out on a date.” Pete said, and Marina nodded in apparent understanding. Julia was still confused.

“They can go out, I don’t care. They are dating, after all.” The words cut like a knife, even if she pretended they didn’t. She hadn’t meant to fall for Kady, especially after she had found out the other girl had a boyfriend.

And she definitely hadn’t meant to fall for Penny, but for some reason she was just as disappointed that he was in a relationship. It had snuck up on her over the last couple of days, but she would find herself watching him read and wondering what it would be like to curl up next to him. She found herself making him laugh on purpose, just to listen to the sound and know that she was the reason for it.

She had seen the way he was with Kady, how much he loved her. Julia knew that she couldn’t be the one to break them up, even if she knew which one she wanted. Which she didn’t, to her frustration.

Or maybe she did, in her heart. She wanted them both. And that was just as frustrating, even if she tried not to admit it. A voice in the back of her head reminded her of the teenagers Kady had told her about in Central Park, of the unconventional relationships they had talked about. Obviously Kady didn’t mind the fact that relationships like that existed, but Julia knew from experience that sometimes being tolerant of something was easier when it wasn’t staring you in the face. She couldn’t count the number of people she knew who claimed to be okay with lgbtq+ people but would turn away in disgust as soon as they knew she considered herself part of that community.

“Oh, honey.” Julia was pulled back from her thoughts by Marina’s hand on her arm, and she blinked at the other woman. “It’s okay, they like you too.”

“What? I wasn’t --” She stopped as soon as Marina’s eyebrow raised, and shook her head in denial. “I’m not going to be a homewrecker, I promise. They’re too good for each other, I don’t want to break that up.”

“So don’t.” She gaped at Pete, who shrugged as he handed back the wine he had apparently stolen from Marina while she had been lost in her thoughts. “Join in, instead. You’re good for them, too.”

Julia shook her head. “No, I’m not. I’m broken.”

“Bullshit.” Marina spit the word out, eyes blazing. “Whoever told you that was a fucking moron. You’re perfect just the way you are as long as you’re comfortable in your own skin, and that’s the only thing that matters.”

She remembered Kady telling her something similar, something that she stole from Marina, and she gave them a shaky smile. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I don’t even know how to have a normal relationship, my only boyfriend was a fucking bastard!”

Fuck. She hadn’t meant to say that. Technically Reynard hadn’t been her only boyfriend, but does one really count a middle school relationship? Even if James had been a sweet boy who had held her hand in the hallways and kissed her cheek on their one and only date.

“Pete, darling, can you give us a minute?” He nodded and left after reaching over slowly and squeezing Julia’s hand. Marina sat down in a chair facing her and did a spell with her fingers that Julia saw shimmer in the open entrance to the kitchen before settling back down.

“Silencing spell, no one can hear us. Besides, Quentin is upstairs talking to your friends again. Now, what are you worried about?”

Marina’s voice was softer than Julia had ever heard it, and she suddenly understood why the other woman had become a counselor. Even if Julia wasn’t a youth anymore, and hadn’t been for several years, there was something comforting in the idea of telling her all of the fears running through her head.

“Kady probably told you already, but I’m asexual.” She waited with bated breath, but Marina merely hummed.

“She didn’t, since it’s none of my business, but thank you for sharing that with me. You know that doesn’t make you broken, right? I have several friends and kids who are asexual, and some of them are in perfectly healthy relationships.”

Julia nodded. “Yeah, Kady already said that. But I still don’t know, what am I supposed to do in a relationship if I don’t want to have sex with them? It seems like all everyone talks about is fucking. I mean, I’ve had sex, I’m not a virgin, but it’s not something I really want. What’s the point of a relationship then?”

“Relationships aren’t just about sex, they’re about trust and caring for each other.” Julia scoffed and Marina shrugged. “Okay, some of them are just about sex, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. But it is perfectly alright to have a romantic relationship with someone that doesn’t actually involve sex. If they love you, they won’t need sex to be in a happy relationship. They might want it, and that’s completely up to you and the rules that you agree upon with them. But they don’t need it, and if they try to convince you that they do tell them to fuck off.”

Julia winced. “Tried that once, it didn’t end well.”

“Then he’s a fucking bastard, just like you said, and I’m glad you’re free of him. If he ever comes near you again, I’ll kick his ass.” Julia gave her a small smile, and Marina put a hand on top of one of Julia’s. “Look, just think about talking to Kady and Penny. I think they might surprise you.”

She patted Julia’s hand twice as she stood up and dispelled the silencing spell, and then left without another word. Julia sighed and put her head in her hands, pressing her palms against her burning eyes.

She had a lot to think about. But not right now. Pete was right, her stomach reminded her, it was time for dinner.

And then they were doing magic.


	35. Penny

Penny sat behind Marina, cross-legged on the chalk circle she had drawn. Kady was behind Pete on the other side of the circle, and Julia and Quentin were similarly across from each other at the perpendicular to the line made by him and Kady.

Marina was explaining the ritual to the newbies, telling them what they had to do. Visualize a giant bubble-shield encircling the apartment and focus on it. Or, if that was too abstract to think of, at least think of a bubble encasing the six of them as they sat there. The energy would still come out with the same intent, and Pete and Marina could shape it as they desired.

“What’s all that?” Penny rolled his eyes as Quentin pointed to the various bottles, bags, and bowls in between and around Marina and Pete.

“Magic shit, obviously.”

Marina didn’t even look as she reached back and smacked his knee. “Don’t be an asshole, Pen. This is a bunch of stuff that I’m going to be adding to this main bowl over the hour that this is going to take.” She points to each of the items as she lists all the ingredients. “Incense, oil, knotted string, some blood of our target. Powdered silver and iron, and a little diamond dust for nondetection. A bell, but I’m not adding it to the bowl, and a wire that I think is silver, right Pete?”

“Yeah, and the mirror is made of silver too. Good for shielding spells, silver and iron.” Penny watched Julia drink in the information hungrily, and smirked a little as he remembered having a similar expression when he learned about magic. He hid it better, but he had been just as excited as Quentin.

“One last thing” Pete reached for two jars on the shelf behind him and took a pinch of each in one hand, mixing them together. He muttered, “d’natsrednu segaugnal” as he painted two diagonal lines with his thumb across Quentin and Julia’s foreheads, from their eyebrows to meet at their hairlines.

“Soot and salt. It’s a quick spell so you can understand what we’re saying. Kind of like having a sci-fi translator for foreign languages, but it only lasts for an hour.”

Julia’s eyes lit up, and Penny almost laughed. He knew she would definitely want to learn that one as quickly as she could.

“Now, let’s begin.”

Penny began to focus on the shield that he visualized in his head, and he watched as Marina and Pete chanted and added things to the cauldron in front of them. Marina had lit a fire in the bowl with a snap of her fingers, and the smoke rising as they gradually added powders and incense swirled and changed colors.

They had been sitting there for almost the whole hour when Penny blinked and suddenly everything changed. He was still sitting with his friends, but the air around them was charged with power. There was a scent in the air that reminded him of lightning and metal.

Astral projection, another side effect of being a Traveller.

It wouldn’t last long, he could only stay for a minute or two, but he looked around him to check that the wards were holding since he was here. He could see the energy that Pete and Marina were shaping, pulsing up and down the walls as it settled into its new form. It was stronger with the addition of two more witches. The colors of the magic swirled and Penny looked away from the hypnotic pattern and back at his friends, even as the light around them almost blinded him.

Marina and Pete were holding hands at this point, and the energy that shifted between them pulsed with streaks of deep red and gunmetal grey. Glancing down at his own hands, the familiar copper strands streamed from him to the circle before following the chalk lines drawn to collect in the middle.

Quentin’s magic was bright silver, and Julia’s was a deep forest green. He stared entranced at the circle as the forest green twined around the sapphire blue of Kady’s power before merging with the other colors.

The colors pulsed out and Penny knew that they were getting to the end of the spell. He closed his eyes after one last took at the enticing colors, and opened them back in the circle as Pete and Marina finished the ritual with a dash of their own blood, mixed in their clasped hands as it fell into the fire.

Everyone sat there for another minute, exhausted by the energy that had been pulsing through and around them.

“Holy fucking shit.” Quentin whispered, and Penny laughed.

“Welcome to the fan-fucking-tastic world of magic, Coldwater.”


	36. Kady

Kady stood next to Penny and held his hand, holding her other hand out to Julia. She shivered slightly when the other girl took it and tried to pass it off as jittery excitement for the trip they were taking. Julia grinned at her as she held on tight to Kady and Quentin.

“Everyone ready?” Marina drawled, holding Penny and Pete’s hands and smirking at Kady, who would have flipped her off if she had any free hands. As it was, she didn’t really want to let go, so she just narrowed her eyes at her. Everyone else around the circle nodded, and Penny took a deep breath before he closed his eyes.

Three seconds passed, and then the familiar stomach-twisting jolt pulled Kady into wherever they go when the jump between places. A heartbeat later, another jolt pushed them out and onto solid ground again. Julia and Quentin stumbled, not as used to this particular mode of transportation yet, and Pete and Kady held them steady from either side. Once she was sure Julia was okay, Kady looked around to see where they were.

They were in the mouth of an alley, but Kady could see in the dim light of dawn that the streets around them were deserted. She had forgotten about the time difference, since it had been after nine by the time they were ready in New York.

“Still awesome.” Quentin had gone with Penny and Pete to get pastries from his roommates’ bakery, and he had been dying to try it again.

“Where are we going, did Eliot’s friend give you an address?” The ever-practical Julia piped up, and Q dug in his pocket for his phone as everyone released hands. Kady released the hands she was holding reluctantly.

“Yeah, yeah, I have it here somewhere. Uh, 1329 Prescott Street. It’s only a few minutes from here, according to google maps.”

“Well, then. Let’s go.” Pete shuffled them down the street in the direction Quentin pointed, and they walked quickly until they came to the little house that he said was the right one. It was cute, a pink-red house with white trim and shutters. White steps led up to a porch and the mostly-glass double doors, with actual curtains in all the windows.

Quentin bounded up the steps and knocked, and they stood around awkwardly waiting for the door to open. When it finally creaked open, a cute brunette peeked her head out. When Quentin waved awkwardly, a smile lit up her face and she opened the door quickly.

“Come in, come in! We weren’t expecting you for a few more hours, or I would have made breakfast! Do you want some tea? I’ll make some tea.” She shut the door and turned to face everyone. “Oh, silly me, where are my manners? I’m Fen! Welcome to my home.”

Pete whistled softly. “You own this house?”

Fen nodded. “Well, it was my parents’ house, technically. Been in our family for generations, so I took over after my da died.”

“It’s a gorgeous house.” Quentin said, and then looked around. “Is anyone else up?”

“Oh, yes! Well, I think so, I heard Margo in the study a little while ago. El might not be up yet. Come in, I’ll show you where everything is.”

Kady pulled her boots off, even if Fen insisted that that wasn’t necessary, and they all put their shoes in an actual shoe rack beside the door. The inside of the house was just as quaint as the outside, and they followed the brunette around as she showed them through the house. She yelled up the stairs that they had guests as they went past and ended up in the kitchen, where Fen did put on the kettle and pulled mugs down from the cupboard.

“Why the fuck are you yelling, Fen, I’m trying to work.” A voice emerged from what was apparently the study, and Quentin smirked.

“Well, fine, don’t come see me when I get here, see if I care.”

There was a gasp and then a grinning young woman appeared in the doorway. “Oh my god, Q! What are you doing here so early?”

Quentin laughed as she moved quickly to hug him and then gave him a kiss. “Hey, Margo. I forgot about the time difference when I told you our ETA.”

Margo rolled her eyes fondly and then leaned away from Quentin without letting him out of her tight hug. Kady wondered why Quentin turned his head away, but the answer came quickly enough. “El-i-ot! Get your ass up! Your fuckboy is here!”

Penny snorted as Quentin blushed, rubbing his ears. “Jesus fuck, Margo. I’m not a fuckboy.”

“Kinda are, though.” Marina smirked. “Hi, I’m Marina, we met on FaceTime.”

“Right. I’m Margo. And oh my god, Julia!” It was Julia’s turn for a hug, and then she turned to the rest of them.

Pete waved and then pointed to Kady and Penny in turn. “I’m Pete. That’s Kady and Penny.”

“Nice to meet you.” She ran appraising eyes down each of them and nodded. “Eliot will be down in a minute.”

True to her word, someone came stumbling down the stairs as Fen was pouring water into each of the mugs. Kady turned to see a lanky curly-haired boy yawn as he shuffled into the kitchen.

“I’m up, I’m up.” He glanced around at everyone in the room and his eyes lit up when he saw Quentin. They moved towards each other like magnets and hugged tightly, with presumably-Eliot kissing Q’s forehead as he pulled away to look up and down his boyfriend. “Are you okay? Also, damn, whoever put you in those skinny jeans should be given a fucking medal.”

“That was me.” Pete held out his hand. “Pete.”

Eliot looked him up and down in the same manner that Margo had. “Nice to meet you, and thank you. I dunno how you did it, I’ve been trying for at least a year.”

“Fuck off, El.” Quentin muttered. “I dress fine.”

“No, you dress like a high school student who doesn’t want anyone to notice him.” Julia jabbed at him as she accepted her own hug from Eliot. “We’re working on it. It is nice to have someone with the closet that those two have, and magic to expand or shrink the clothes as needed, though.”

“You save a fortune in tailoring that way.” Marina added in and finger-waved at Eliot as he raised his eyebrows. “Hello again.”

“Hello, Marina. That’s fucking genius. You’ll have to teach me those spells.” He turned to Penny and Kady, and Kady raised her hand in hello.

“I’m Kady, that’s Penny. Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s talk about this Fillory of yours that we’re here to save.”


	37. Julia

Julia had spread out the blueprint she and Penny had created in the study and was triple checking everything when Margo leaned over her shoulder to peer at the paper.

“Damn, Wicker. This looks great. You do some good work.”

“It wasn’t all me. Penny helped a lot with it, he actually came up with several of the crucial parts of the structure. Plus, he knew more about the magic side and how we could merge ambient magic with the architecture to keep the library running.”

“Uh-huh, your new boytoy is smart too, I get it.”

Julia blushed. “He’s not my boytoy. He’s Kady’s boyfriend.”

Margo hissed in sympathy. “That’s rough. You obviously like him a lot. Although Q was telling us that you were flirting with Kady. Did that not work out?”

She stared at Margo. “No, because she’s Penny’s girlfriend. And I don’t like him a lot, I like him a normal amount. The same amount I like her. Like a friend.”

She was getting kinda tired of raised eyebrows. First Marina, now Margo.

“Look, they’re a couple, and they’re happy. I don’t want to get in the way of that.” She was starting to sound like a broken record.

“Kady was practically sitting on your lap in the living room.”

“There wasn’t space for us all, she had to squeeze onto the arm of the couch!”

“Yes, but did she have to curl her arm around you for balance? Especially since her boyfriend was sitting in a chair right next to the couch, she could have sat in his lap if she really wanted to.”

Julia shook her head. That was ridiculous.

“Besides, her boyfriend kept looking at you with literal heart eyes.”

“No he wasn’t, he was looking at Kady. How would you know, you were making eyes at Fen the whole time!”

Margo shrugged. “Yeah, and at least I’ll admit it. Fen is adorable and I’m totally going to tap that.”

“You’re so fucking crass.”

“Better believe it, bitch.” Margo smirked. “Speaking of, what’s with the necklace?”

Julia blushed. “It was at a little shop we went to after we went ice skating.”

“Who, you and Kady?”

“Shut up. Yes. But I’m only wearing it because Marina put a spell on it. Some kind of scrying spell, apparently it will let us see what the other person is doing. Only you and I and Penny are going to be explaining the whole plan to Mr. Rowe and Mayor Ember, so Kady and Marina and everyone else will have to watch through the necklace.”

“Did you get the necklaces for the spell, or did you do the spell because you already had matching fucking ‘Best Bitches’ heart necklaces?” She didn’t say anything, and Margo nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

Time to change the subject. “Anyway, the plan is for us to show them the library blueprint and the contract that Penny wrote up. You looked it over, right?”

Margo nodded. “Yes, it’s a solid contract. No loopholes that I could see, and I sent a picture of it to Skye, one of the girls in my classes. She’s better at contracts than I am, and she couldn’t find any faults in it either.”

“You sent her a contract about a magic library? Jesus, Margo.”

“What? I told her it was just a practice test from a seminar I’m at, she didn’t even question it. Who would think I was really looking at a contract about building a library in an alternate dimension using a magic tree as a portal?”

Julia hummed. “Fair point. Anyway, it’s not a magic tree. The tree was already part of Fillory, next to the one information outpost in the reserve. We’re just going to add something with a keyhole into the tree so that they remember where the portal is.”

“Put a clock.”

“Why the fuck would we put a clock in a tree?”

“Well, a door is way too obvious, and clocks at least have a function. It can tell the time for all the tourists, since Mayor Ember is thinking of opening up more of the reserve to the public according to Fen’s friend Abigail.”

“Maybe. I’ll see what Penny thinks.” Julia rolled her eyes at Margo’s expression. “Are you going to look at me like that every time I mention one of them?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

“Great. Just go shag Fen or something already, I have to look over this one more time.” Margo reached out and snatched the paper away. “What, Margo!”

“You’ve already looked it over a million times, according to Marina and Pete. Now, let’s go have a drink with the rest of our friends. Yes, you have to.”

“I didn’t even protest yet!”

“But you were going to, and I’m not letting you sit here by yourself when you have two gorgeous people upstairs who would rather have your company.”

Julia raised her hands and gave in. “Fine. Just one drink.”

Seeing the smirk on her friend’s face, Julia was going to regret saying that.


	38. Penny

Penny sat back and watched Margo explain their proposal. She owned that room, strutting back and forth as she talked in killer stilettos and a dark red pantsuit of Marina’s that she had sent him back to the apartment for that morning. The house had been a hive of activity as everyone dressed to impress even if only Penny, Julia, and Margo were going to be in the meeting with the librarians and the Mayor.

Mayor Ember was a fat man who had let power go to his head. He didn’t actually give a damn about his town as far as Penny could tell. Luckily, Fen had said he was more of a figurehead and the actual town was run by a town council. One of the advisors was there, too, a skinny man named Raff who hadn’t said a word.

The librarians were represented by Everett, Zelda, and Cyrus. Penny didn’t like any of them, but they were the ones he knew they had to convince. Zelda was at least listening to Margo, while Cyrus was gazing around the room in disinterest.

Margo finished speaking, and Julia got up to unroll the blueprint and spread it across the desk. The three librarians clustered around it to look, and Penny started getting nervous. It was partially his work that they were examining. He tapped his fingers mindlessly on his knee, needing to release his nerves somehow as he watched Julia explain the theory of the self-expanding library and the small amount of energy that it would require if it was anchored to the wellspring correctly.

Everett took out a magnifying glass to get a closer look at their draft, and Julia sat back down next to Penny as the mayor and librarians conferred with each other and re-read the contract in detail. He jumped a little when Julia took his hand, stilling his fingers from the rhythm they had been tapping with a squeeze. He laced their fingers together and held on tight, knowing he was probably blushing but too nervous to care.

Glancing over at her, Penny saw that she had her other hand tangled in the chain of the necklace she was wearing, although she was careful to not obscure the area where the others would be watching from. Marina had set up a projection with Kady’s half and a hand mirror so that the necklaces basically worked like a hidden camera and they could see and hear everything that was being said.

Ember had spoken to Everett at length as the hedges waited patiently, and they had gone back and forth over the contract and blueprint several times. The Mayor turned to them suddenly, and Penny straightened up in his chair. Julia’s nails were cutting into his hand but he barely even noticed.

“We have reached a decision.” Ember’s voice boomed out loudly even though everyone was well-within hearing distance, and Penny tried not to wince. “I believe Mr. Rowe has decided to accept the terms of your proposal. Fillory will not be sold to the Order of the Librarians. Instead, their library will be built in a neitherland dimension and tethered through a portal to the magic of the wellspring.”

Penny sagged in relief as Margo stood up to thank the Mayor and the librarians properly in some kind of lawyer-talk. Julia finally lessened her death-grip on his hand, and he winced as they both pulled away. They stood up to thank Everett and the Mayor as well, and Penny tried not to grimace as he shook hands with Everett.

“Well done, boy. This will work out nicely. Thank you.”

“I didn’t fucking do it for you. Just sign the damn contract.”

“Mr. Rowe?” Penny could have kissed Julia for her timely interruption as she held out the clipboard with the contract on it.

“Of course. Do you have a pen, Mayor Ember?” The mayor produced a fountain pen from his desk and Everett signed his name underneath Ember’s.

“If that’s all, I think we’ll be going.” Margo collected their copy of the blueprints from the table, leaving the official copies to be filed with the mayor’s office. Penny followed her and Julia out of the room and they all walked out of the building.

As soon as they were outside, Julia turned to him with a blinding smile. “We fucking did it!” She clapped her hands together and bounced with released energy, and he couldn’t stop himself from picking her up and spinning her in a circle as she laughed.

“We fucking did it.” Penny grinned as Julia wrapped her legs around his waist to keep them balanced and hugged him tightly. Pressed up against her, he breathed in the scent of her shampoo. It smelled like jasmine.

Julia pulled back from the hug, and she was so close he could feel her breath on his face. He stared into her eyes, and she stared right back. Penny didn’t know how long they stayed like that, just that Margo coughed eventually and they blinked.

“If you two are done staring into each other’s eyes, we have a celebration to get to back at the house. El is providing the drinks, of course.” Julia untangled her legs and he let her down carefully, pulling away after he was sure she was back on solid ground.

“Of course he is.” Julia walked past Penny in the direction of the house without another word. Penny looked at Margo in confusion.

Margo rolled her eyes at him. “Go after her, dumbass. And then you two need to talk with Kady. It’ll all work out in the end.”

He may have cheated a little by Traveling a few steps in front of her and felt a little bad for making her jump. He didn’t say anything, just grabbed her hand and kept walking. But when he snuck a glance over at her a few seconds later, she was smiling down at the sidewalk as she interlaced their fingers.


	39. Pete

Pete watched the crowd of people as he made himself and Marina cocktails at the makeshift bar that Eliot had set up in Fen’s kitchen. He had to give it to the other man, he had good taste in alcohol.

The man in question was wrapped around Quentin, hugging him from behind while Q talked to Margo on the couch. Something to do with magic, if the finger movements they were making while Eliot watched were anything to go by. Margo had discovered her ‘mutation’ was cryomancy, or ice manipulation. She had practiced freezing glasses of water, not wanting to waste the alcohol when one of them broke. Quentin put the broken ones back together, of course, and earned himself a kiss on the cheek from Fen.

Fen, who was currently next to Margo and watching her talk with a small smile that spoke volumes to the practiced eye of someone like Pete.

Finishing up the drinks, Pete lifted the metal shaker and measuring set over to the sink by his own powers just because he could. He would wash them, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he would be making more once Marina had a taste, so there was no point to doing it right now. Marina was curled up in a loveseat across from the couch, keeping an eye on the front door.

Pete handed her both their drinks as he lowered himself next to her, and she leaned back against him as he put an arm around her. She took a sip of her drink as she handed his back to him, and hummed happily.

“Is there peppermint in this?”

“Yup. Are they out there?” She nodded. “All three of them?”

This time she grinned. “Yes! All three of them, and you know Penny was holding Julia’s hand when they came in from the meeting. Margo said they were practically eye-fucking.”

Margo turned to look at them, breaking off her conversation with a smirk. “That’s because they were! Jules was wrapped around him like he was a fucking tree she wanted to climb, I’m surprised they didn’t start making out right then.”

“Not that I would blame her, he’s one hot piece of eye-candy. I’d climb him like a tree too if we weren’t already practically the same height.” Eliot added in, and shrugged when Fen hissed his name. “What? I’ve got eyes, don’t I? My boyfriend doesn’t mind, do you, Quentin?”

“‘Course not, especially ‘cause you’re right.” Quentin leaned back against him as they shifted into a better cuddling position on the couch, and Pete smirked as he noticed that Q was wearing the sweatshirt he had let him borrow that first night.

“Don’t worry, babe.” Margo purred as she looked over at Fen. “I think I’d rather have someone a little more down-to-earth.”

Fen blushed, and Marina snickered quietly as Pete tried not to laugh. Margo knew what she wanted, and she was not at all shy about making that very obvious to the other girl. Eliot’s eyebrow-wiggles probably didn’t help the situation as Fen tried to look at someone other than Margo, at least until Margo wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in to cuddle like the boys were doing.

Pete took another sip of his drink and watched the conversation start up again as the four contemplated if Margo could make it snow from the moisture in the air. Marina snuggled into his chest, and he looked down at her.

“Alright, there?”

She smiled. “Yeah. I like these new friends. We should keep them.”

He grinned as he looked at the door. “We will. I don’t think we’ll have a choice.”


	40. Kady

Kady leaned against one of the columns of the porch while she and Penny waited for Julia to come outside. Penny was sprawled on one of the steps that led to the house, tapping his fingers against the brick.

Julia opened the door and slipped outside, and Kady turned to smile at her.

“All good in there?” The architect had wanted to put the blueprints away safely before coming to talk to them, to make sure they were safe from whatever alcohol-based accidents might happen that night.

She nodded. “Yup, tucked away where nothing can get spilled on them.”

“Good. That’s good.” Kady didn’t know what to say next, so she fell silent.

“Listen --”

“Look --”

Penny and Julia started talking at the same time, and Kady snorted as they both trailed off and looked away from each other. Julia sat down with her back to the door, and Penny turned so that he could see both of them with one leg up on the step he was sitting on. Kady hopped up on the railing of the porch, completing the triangle as she faced the other two with one arm hugging the column to keep her balance.

“You go first.” Penny motioned for Julia to go ahead, and Kady saw her look between them quickly.

“Alright. Look. I like you, Kady. And I like you, Penny.” She shrugged. “I don’t want to be a homewrecker. You have a really good thing going for you guys. But apparently, you like me too, according to, well. Marina. And Margo. And Pete.”

Kady shook her head slightly. “Nosy bitches, the lot of them.”

Julia’s face fell, and it took Kady a second to rewind what she had done and said, or not said. “Oh, they aren’t wrong. They’re just nosy fucks. I do like you. I like you a lot.”

The grin she received was quick but blinding before dropping away as Julia looked over at Penny with a nervous expression. Kady glanced at him, and he was picking at the hem of the short-sleeved shirt he had changed into even though it was fucking December.

He looked up at her, and then over at Julia before turning his gaze back to his hands. He shrugged slightly. “I’m not good with this kind’a shit. I like you, too.”

There was a beat of silence where they all absorbed this information, even though it wasn’t very surprising. And apparently super obvious to everyone, if Margo was giving Julia advice after only knowing her and Penny for less than a day.

Julia broke the silence as she hugged her knees to her chest. “So, um. Penny, I guess you should know, unless Kady already told you?” Kady shook her head as Julia looked up at her questioningly. She hadn’t told him about Julia being asexual or anything else they had talked about. It hadn’t been her story to tell, after all.

The other girl didn’t say anything for a second, and Penny cocked his head as he looked over at her. “You don’t have to --”

“I’m asexual.” She said it quick, not looking at either of them. Kady watched Penny blink a few times, digesting the information.

“That’s the one where you don’t have sex, right?”

Julia shrugged with a small grin. “I mean, I can have sex. I’ve had sex before, I’m not a fucking virgin or anything. I just, I don’t really like it? It doesn’t do anything for me.”

“Okay.”

Kady grinned widely as Julia looked over at him with an incredulous expression on her face. Penny might act like a rough-around-the-edges asshole, but he had been a tolerant guy from the moment she had met him even before he was subjected to listening to rants from Pete and Marina.

“That’s -- that’s it? ‘Okay’?” He shrugged one shoulder.

“You don’t like sex, that’s fine. Do you mind if Kady and I have sex?”

Julia shook her head. “No.”

“Great. Do you like kissing?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I like all the romantic things. Kissing, cuddling, dates. Just not the actual sex.”

“Can I kiss you?” Kady hadn’t meant to blurt it out quite like that, she could be smoother than that. But Julia looked over at her and nodded eagerly. She hopped down from the railing as Julia got up from the stoop and met her in the middle of the porch.

It was a simple press of lips, some pressure but not too forceful. Kady thought it was one of the best kisses she had ever had. She stared into Julia’s eyes as they broke apart after what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds, until Penny coughed to get their attention.

He had stood up without her noticing, and was standing right next to her. She saw Julia’s eyes flicker over to him questioningly.

“My turn.”

Julia grinned and broke out of Kady’s personal space to lean over and kiss him. Kady turned away so they couldn’t see her grinning like a loon, and noticed that it had begun to snow around them. She heard shouts of glee from inside the house and realized that Margo the ice witch must have done something since it wasn’t supposed to snow that night.

She moved to the edge of the porch, looking up at the sky. It was a clear night, another tick in the ‘magic snow’ column. The stars shone brightly through the slowly-falling flakes, and Kady smiled as she remembered wishing on the stars in that little town in Pennsylvania. She hadn’t realized that a bus breaking down would be one of the best things that would happen to her that year.

An arm fell around her waist, and then a second one as Julia and Penny joined her. She put her arms around them and grinned at Julia as the other girl held out a hand to the snow. “I think it’s Margo’s fault.”

“Maybe it was a wish upon a star.” She pointed up with a gasp, and Kady looked up to see a shooting star streak across the night sky.

She leaned back against her boyfriend and turned her head to kiss her girlfriend’s cheek gently. “In that case, I blame it on the stardust.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all folks! You made it to the end! Hope you enjoyed, kudos and comments are always appreciated. Feel free to come chat with me about the Magicians and other nerdy things on tumblr, my handle is LilyAceOfDiamonds.


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